China's Producer Price Index (PPI) rose 0.1% month-on-month in November, marking the second consecutive monthly increase, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on December 10.
Dong Lijuan, chief statistician at the NBS Department of Urban Surveys, attributed the sequential PPI growth to seasonal demand increases in certain domestic industries. As regions began preparing for peak winter energy consumption, coal and gas demand rose seasonally, driving prices higher. The coal mining and washing sector saw a 4.1% month-on-month price increase, coal processing prices rose 3.4%, and gas production and supply prices climbed 0.7%.
Meanwhile, imported commodity price trends led to diverging price movements in China's nonferrous metals and petroleum-related industries. In November, rising global nonferrous metal prices pushed up domestic nonferrous metal mining and processing prices by 2.6% month-on-month, while nonferrous metal smelting and rolling prices increased 2.1%. Conversely, falling international oil prices contributed to a 2.4% decline in domestic oil and gas extraction prices and a 2.2% drop in refined petroleum product manufacturing prices.
Year-on-year, China's PPI fell 2.2% in November, with the decline widening by 0.1 percentage points from October, primarily due to a higher comparison base from the same period last year. However, Dong noted positive price trends emerging as macroeconomic policies take effect. For instance, efforts to curb "internal competition" have shown results, with year-on-year price declines narrowing in related sectors. The coal mining and washing industry, photovoltaic equipment and component manufacturing, and lithium-ion battery manufacturing saw year-on-year price declines narrow by 3.8, 2.0, and 0.7 percentage points, respectively—continuing a multi-month trend of moderation.
Additionally, rapid growth in emerging industries supported price increases in related sectors. External storage device and component prices rose 13.9% year-on-year, graphite and carbon product manufacturing prices increased 3.8%, integrated circuit manufacturing prices climbed 1.7%, and service robot manufacturing prices edged up 1.1%.
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