Robust March for Chinese commodity imports China's imports of raw materials such as copper, crude oil and iron ore were robust in March, reassuring investors and traders that the country's demand for commodities is holding up despite signs of slowing growth in the world's second-largest economy. The country is the world's biggest consumer of many commodities and investors scrutinise the monthly import data, which was released on Tuesday by Chinese customs authorities, for signals about demand trends. These [are] very comforting numbers. China is not slowing too rapidly," said Ian Roper, analyst at CLSA in Shanghai. March's iron imports, which rose 5.7 per cent from the previous year to 62.9m tonnes, were higher than expected because of strong iron ore supplies from India, Mr Roper added. Meanwhile, grains and cereals were China's fastest growing import commodity in March, with imports of wheat, barley, corn and rice rising sixfold from a year earlier to reach 1.64m tonnes. China's imports of soybeans also rose in March to 4.8m tonnes, up 21.6 per cent from the previous year. China has to feed one-fifth of the world's population with only 7 per cent of the world's arable land, and the country's dependence on imported grain is growing as Chinese start to consume more meat. Many commodities imports in March fell slightly from the previous month, however analysts said this was due to the distortions of Chinese New Year, a holiday that fell at the end of January and caused February data to be over-reported. Crude imports fell slightly in March to 5.56m barrels per day, versus 5.97m barrels per day in February, although they were still up 8.6 per cent from the previous year. Copper imports were near record highs at 462,182 tonnes, up 50.5 per cent from the previous year, continuing a run of strong Chinese copper buying that has buoyed global copper markets. However, analysts said the copper purchases were driven mainly by traders who use copper importing as a channel to get bank loans by holding the metal as collateral. "The high imports don't reflect genuine demand, but financing demand," said Li Yusheng, analyst at Antaike in Beijing, a state-linked consultancy. He expects copper imports to fall in coming months as a result. Additional reporting by Gwen Chen in Beijing.