China Daily Oil Summary: Chinese Teapots Cut Feedstock Imports

MNI (London) - Chinese independent refineries in Shandong cut feedstock imports by 7% m/m in September to 10.14m tons, driven by a fall in crude imports according to JLC.

• Imports of crude into Teapot refineries oil fell 15% m/m to 7.45mn tons.
• CDU capacity utilisation rates at China’s independent refineries rose by 0.57 percentage points in the seven days to Oct. 12, averaging 70.34%, according to OilChem.
• Among independent refineries in Shandong, CDU utilisation averaged 64.99%, unchanged on the previous week, but down 1.29 percentage points on the year.
• YUAN: The currency strengthened to 7.2941 against the dollar from 7.2980 on Wednesday. The PBOC set the dollar-yuan central parity rate lower at 7.1776, compared with 7.1779 set on Wednesday. The fixing was estimated at 7.2946 by Bloomberg survey today.
• China’s Q3 GDP growth may reach over 4% as the economy shows more signs of recovery. Retail sales are expected to rebound to about 5.5% in September, supported by the lower comparison base for the same period last year alongside a boost to domestic tourism driven by the Hangzhou Asian Games and the recent Golden Week holiday, said Wen Bin, chief economist at China Minsheng Bank. Industrial output may rebound to 4.7%.
• POLICY: A leading Chinese official has raised the possibility of using central bank digital currencies as an interest-bearing store of value, and not just for settlement, which has been the role so far envisaged for the digital yuan by the People’s Bank of China.