China Refinery Throughput at Record Pace in August

China refinery throughput hit a record high in August according to official figures out Friday, countering any narrative of economic weakness as refiners sought to meet strong summer travel demand and boosted runs ahead of the latest export quotas.

• Total refinery throughput was 64.69 million metric tons according to NBS, the equivalent to 15.23 million bpd, also a record on a daily basis and up from 14.87mn bpd in July and 12.64mn bpd a year prior.
• Year-to-date throughput gained 11.9% from a year earlier to 491.4 million tons, or 14.76 million bpd.
• Refiners have been incentivized by additional government fuel export quotas to maintain higher runs to export fuels. The latest third batch adds 15 million tonnes to 2023 fuel export quotas.
• Refined fuel exports continued to grow last month, rising 11% from the previous month and 23.3% year-on-year to 5.89 million tons in August.