China’s manufacturing sector saw its best month in years in October, according to both the official and the Caixin purchasing managers’ indices (PMI). Commodity prices played their role with a sharp hike in input prices, Kallanish notes.

Both the Caixin and the official PMI came in at 51.2 last month, from 50.1 for the Caixin in September and 50.4 for the official figure released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). Both indices also largely agreed on why the PMIs were up.

New orders increased, both indices suggest, but export orders were slightly down. Both saw production levels at the highest in a very long time, with the Caixin production index the highest in more than five and a half years.

Surging commodities prices were another key driver. The Caixin figure saw input cost inflation as being the fastest since September 2011. The official index for input prices hit 62.6 in October, up from 57.5 in September after the figure finally turned positive in February this year.

The steel market will be looking to the manufacturing sector to support demand in the final two months of 2016. White goods figures did pick up in September, and house sales suggest they could still be strong in October. Automotive remains the fastest growing manufacturing sector for steel demand however.