China's exports fell 8.8% in August year-on-year, while imports contracted 7.3%, customs data showed on Thursday, increasing pressure on the country's vast manufacturing sector as demand sags at home and abroad.

A Reuters poll of economists had forecast a fall of 9.2% in exports and a drop of 9.0% in imports.

KEY POINTS:

* Soybeans: August imports at 9.36 million tonnes, down 3.8% m/m

* Crude oil: August imports at 52.80 million metric tons, up 20.8% m/m and 30.9% y/y

* Iron ore: August imports at 106.42 million metric tons, up 13.8% m/m and 10.6% y/y

* Copper: August imports at 473,330 metric tons, up 4.9% m/m but down 5% y/y

Preliminary table of commodity trade data

Below are comments from analysts on the commodities data.

COMMENT ON COPPER

ZHANG WEIXIN, CHONGQING-BASED ANALYST AT CHINA FUTURES

"High domestic output and flat demand in China contributed to a yearly decline in copper imports. The monthly increase, which also met expectation, came after improving arbitrage conditions last month and more flows from Africa."

COMMENT ON SOYBEANS

ROSA WANG, SHANGHAI-BASED ANALYST AT AGRO-CONSULTANCY JCI

"Soybean imports in August were higher than expected. The reason could be the addition of cargoes from lagged customs clearances."

COMMENT ON IRON ORE

PEI HAO, SHANGHAI-BASED SENIOR ANALYST AT INTERNATIONAL BROKERAGE FIRM FIS

"The August number is a bit higher than our expectation, though in line with our expectation for both month-on-month and year-on-year increases. The typhoon in late July affected the customs clearance for some cargoes, which are therefore counted as imports in August. Moreover, cargoes shipped earlier from Brazil arrived in China later than expected, contributing to higher imports last month."

CAI YONGZHENG, NANJING-BASED DIRECTOR OF JIANGSU FUSHI DATA RESEARCH INSTITUTE

"Iron ore shipments in August were not much affected by weather. Meanwhile, rising iron ore prices within the month encouraged mainstream and non-mainstream miners to deliver more cargoes to China."

LINKS: For details, see the official Customs website (www.customs.gov.cn)

BACKGROUND: China is the world's biggest crude oil importer and top buyer of coal, iron ore and soybeans.

(Reporting by Asia Commodities and Energy team; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)