China Weekly Oil Summary: Refined Product Exports to Rise in Jan

China’s refined fuel exports will likely rise by at least 10% in January m/m to between 3.5 million and 3.6 million metric tons according to consultancies and trade sources contacted by Reuters.

• The lunar New Year holiday travel boom will support China’s gasoline and jet fuel demand, according to BNEF. China is expecting a record 37m vehicle trips per day during the holiday. Airlines are expecting a total of 80m travellers.
• Diesel output in Dec fell 5.4% y/y to 18.4m tons vs 17.654m tons in Nov. Gasoline output rose 11.4% y/y to 12.962m tons vs 12.69m tons.
• Chinese refiners are actively looking for crude cargoes for March-April delivery to replenish stocks while prices are relatively low and demand is muted, according to Reuters.
• Russian and Chinese ships don’t need to fear attack in the Red Sea, Mohammad al-Bukhaiti, spokesman for Yemen’s Houthi militants, told Russian newspaper Izvestia, cited by Bloomberg.
• YUAN: The currency strengthened to 7.1938 against the dollar from 7.1946 on Thursday.
• EXCLUSIVE: Local government financing vehicles will find issuing into the offshore bond market increasingly difficult as authorities aim to reduce their debt levels and the risk of asset mismatch between low return municipality projects and high offshore financing costs, a policy advisor and market insiders told MNI.