China’s Jan Seaborne Crude Imports Slowing: Vortexa

China’s seaborne crude imports in January are slowing and may have fallen below 10m b/d, according to Vortexa, cited by Argus.

• Crude imports were 11m b/d in August but have been falling since, Rohit Rathod, senior oil market analyst at Vortexa told Argus Americas Crude Conference.
• "We have definitely seen some weakness in Chinese demand," Argus quoted Rathod as saying.
• The lack of imports come despite the Chinese government issuing crude import quotas for whole of 2024 in one batch in January.
• "Despite that, there is a lack of imports," Rathod said.
• Rathod added that Chinese inventories were also slow in December with not much of a draw.