China’s July Crude Imports Fell to 3-Month Low

Chinese crude oil imports last month stood at 43.69mn tons, compared with 52.06mn tons in June and the lowest level since April, showing a significant decline in imports from Russia and Saudi Arabia, data from the Customs General Administration show.

• The country imported most of its crude from Russia last month at 8.06mn tons but this was down from 10.5mn tons in June.
• China imported 5.65mn tons of crude oil from Saudi Arabia in July, down from 7.92mn tons in June.
• Iraqi barrels to China increased last month to 5.4mn tons, up from 4.09mn tons in June.
• The data showed no Iranian crude oil imports in July. But China imported around 562,000tons of “other fuel oil” in July, the highest level since February 2010 and up from 271,000 tons in June.
• Chinese teapots are importing some feedstock such as Iranian crude under labels such as “other heavy oil” and “other fuel oil” to avoid using up their crude import quotas after the government recently eased a probe into feedstocks.
• Imports of “other heavy oil” were at 919,000 tons, up from 293,000 tons in June. Imports of bitumen mix were at 1.38mn tons, compared with 1.08m tons in June.