China's metal demand takes a different shape as housing slumps

While China's housing market could take a while to recover, steel demand is getting a manufacturing and infra boost

- MEGHA MANDAVIA

The realization that China's property bust is beginning to look semipermanent isn't welcome for big miners, which have long fed off the country's housing demand. But although China is starting far fewer new apartment blocks these days, it is building lots more of other realization metal-intense things like electric vehicles and windmills.

That fact, along with supply discipline from the big iron-ore miners, has kept things from being even worse.

Even so, miners' headline results released this week weren't pretty. Rio Tinto's full-year net profit was down 19% year-over-year, the miner said Wednesday, thanks in part to a drop in aluminum prices. BHP's first-half underlying profit, after stripping out one-time charges, including a big nickel asset write-down, was largely flat. Both miners announced dividend cuts. Rio Tinto's full-year underlying earnings were down 12%.