Trade delays get worse, especially in Asia

<p>Kia ora,</p><p>Welcome to Monday's Economy Watch where we follow the economic events and trends that affect New Zealand.</p><p>I'm David Chaston and this is the International edition from Interest.co.nz.</p><p>Today we lead with news supply-chain stresses are not going away.</p><p>We recently noted that the USDA <a href="https://www.usda.gov/oce/commodity/wasde" target="_blank"><strong>sees</strong></a> falling corn inventories worldwide. A key reason is that China is buying up big - and that is causing infrastructure clogging in their ports. China's corn imports quadrupled in the first four months from a year earlier, while millet imports jumped five times in April from a year ago. Barley shipments are up too despite none now arriving from Australia. These port unloading delays add to rising raw material costs that Beijing is struggling to control.</p><p>They aren't managing to take the top off high prices for <a href="http://www.dce.com.cn/DCE/Products/Industrial/Iron%20Ore/index.html" target="_blank"><strong>iron ore</strong></a> or <a href="http://www.dce.com.cn/DCE/Products/Industrial/Coking%20Coal/index.html" target="_blank"><strong>coal</strong></a> either. Both rose again last week. And <a href="https://tradingeconomics.com/commodity/baltic" target="_blank"><strong>shipping costs</strong></a> turned up as well over the past week. Congestion at China's ports is having <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-06-11/china-port-delays-snarl-supply-chains-as-ships-skip-singapore" target="_blank"><strong>a ripple impact</strong></a> globally, but especially in the region. This backup is worse than the March 2021 Suez Canal blockage, and will take longer to clear, some say.</p><p>Not rising however were <a href="http://www.caam.org.cn/index.html" target="_blank"><strong>vehicle sales in China</strong></a> in May. They sold 2.1 mln units in the month, down slightly from in April and -3% lower than for May 2020. This outcome ended a 13 month run of rising sales. But China is still far and away the