China August Imports Increase but YTD Below Last Year

China's crude oil imports in August fell 9.4% from a year earlier according to General Administration of Customs data.

• The lower crude imports were due to outages at state-run refineries and lower operations at independent plants caused by weak margins.
• August commodity imports recovered in August compared to July ahead of the seasonal increase in demand.
• Year to date data highlighted the weakness from covid restrictions on economic activity.
  • crude oil imports 40.354m tons vs 37.328m, ytd fall 4.7% y/y to 330m mt
  • oil product imports 1.893m tons vs 1.625m, ytd fall 15.9% y/y to 15.1m mt
  • natural gas imports 8.849m tons vs 8.70m, ytd fall 10.2% y/y to 71m mt
  • coal imports 29.456m tons vs 23.523m, ytd fall 14.9% y/y to 168 mt
  • oil product exports 4.777m tons vs 3.41m, ytd fall 33.5% y/y to 29.8m mt