China’s daily crude oil imports rose last month to their highest in a year, customs data and Reuters records showed on Tuesday, as shipments staged a tentative recovery on lower crude oil prices and improving refining margins.

Daily crude oil imports stood at 11.56 million barrels per day (bpd) last month, the highest since August a year earlier, according to General Administration of Customs data, which can sometimes be revised later.

Total shipments for the month stood at 49.10 million metric tons, down 7% on the year as low fuel consumption continued to keep demand capped. That was, however, up from 42.34 million tons in July, the lowest level since September 2022.

“Independent runs have been on the rise for six consecutive weeks since late July, echoing the decline of crude prices. State-owned refinery runs have also been on a mild upward trajectory since late July, even against the backdrop of the autumn maintenance season that began in late August,” said Lin Ye, senior analyst for oil trading and downstream at Rystad Energy.

Futures prices for Brent, the global crude benchmark, have fallen more than 17% since early July as worries about weak demand in China have taken hold.

China’s annual oil demand growth has slowed from around 500,000-600,000 barrels per day (bpd) in the five years before the COVID-19 pandemic to 200,000 bpd now, Goldman Sachs oil research head Daan Struyven told the APPEC conference in Singapore on Monday.

“The seasonal refinery runs increase for September and October will not be as strong as last year, owing to the weak road fuel transport demand on the back of greener substitutions,” forecast Ye of Rystad.

Analysts estimate that the increasing use of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in trucks in China will displace around 110,000-140,000 barrels per day of diesel in 2024 and 2025.

Imports for the January-August period fell 3.1% on the year to 367 million tons, the data showed.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Colleen Howe; Editing by Stephen Coates and Muralikumar Anantharaman)