China's crude oil imports stood at 49.05 million tonnes in March, rising 11.12% month on month, per data from the General Administration of Customs of the People's Republic of China (GACC). The imports totaled 137.36 million tonnes over January-March, an annual growth of 0.72%.
Source: GACC
The crude imports rose in March due to rising CDU capacity utilization rates in China, though the independent refineries reduced the production on narrowing profits, according to OilChem data.
Source: Mysteel OilChem
In March, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Malaysia, and UAE served as the top five countries of origin for China's crude imports, with a proportion of 63.91%.
It is expected that China's crude imports will edge down to 48.50 million tonnes in April with more refineries taking routine maintenance. OilChem survey showed that the CDU capacities newly overtaking maintenance are estimated at 78.50 million tonnes/year and 31.40 million tonnes/year among state-owned and independent refineries respectively in the second quarter.
Written by Aggie Hu, huchenying@mysteel.com
Edited by Navy Liu, liuchuanjun@mysteel.com