China oil imports fall from a year ago for fifth month, newest refinery starts up
China oil imports fall from a year ago for fifth month, newest refinery starts up
- Sept. crude oil imports at 45.49 MM tonnes
- Jan.–Sept. imports down 2.8% from a year ago
- New refinery Yulong Petrochemical starts up in late Sept.
- Refined fuel exports at 5.19 MMt
China's oil imports fell in September by 0.6% from a year earlier, data showed on Monday, as plants curbed purchases because of weak domestic fuel demand and narrowing export margins.
The world's largest crude oil importer brought in 45.49 MM tonnes in September, or about 11.07 MMbpd, data from the General Administration of Customs showed.
This was the fifth straight month that shipments were less than the year before, with imports in September 2023 at 11.13 MMbpd. They also declined from 11.56 MMbpd in August.
Year-to-date imports totaled 412.39 MMt, or 10.99 MMbpd, down 2.8% vs. the year-ago period, the data showed.
Imports declined even as China's newest refiner Shandong Yulong Petrochemical started up one of its two 200,000-bpd crude units in late September.
However, many smaller plants in Shandong province, where Yulong is based, are dealing with sluggish fuel consumption particularly for diesel fuel.
Between January and September this year, Chinese diesel consumption was less than the year before in every month except for August, according to consultancy Sublime China Information.
Monday's customs data also showed China's natural gas imports last month were up 18.1% from a year earlier to 11.99 MM tonnes, bringing year-to-date purchases to 99.08 MMt, or 13% higher than year-earlier levels.
Exports of refined oil products, which include diesel, gasoline, aviation fuel and marine fuel, were at 5.19 MMt, down 4.6% from a year earlier and vs. 4.92 MMt in August.
Exports for the first nine months dropped 5.7% on the year to 45.2 MMt.
(1 tonnes = 7.3 bbl for crude oil conversion)
($1 = 7.0791 Chinese yuan renminbi)
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