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April crude oil imports slide 16.2% from March
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Natural gas imports up 11.0% y-o-y
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Refined fuel exports down 1.96% y-o-y
(Adds analysts' comments in paragraphs 3 and 5, bullets)
By Andrew Hayley
BEIJING, May 9 (Reuters) - China's crude oil imports
fell in April to the lowest level since January, customs data
showed on Tuesday, as high inventories, refinery maintenance and
a weaker domestic economic rebound weighed on demand.
Crude imports in April totalled 42.41 million tonnes, or
10.3 million barrels per day (bpd), according to data from the
General Administration of Customs. That was down 1.45% from the
10.5 million bpd of crude imported in April last year.
"The decline in imports is mainly due to refining capacities
off for maintenance, and a build-up in crude inventories
following robust March imports," said Emma Li, a China crude oil
markets analyst at Vortexa in Singapore.
Imports in March had jumped 22.5% on last year to 12.3 million bpd - the highest level since June 2020. The arrival of maintenance season was also "coupled with the perception that China's oil (was) demand weaker than expected in April," said Sun Sijia, a China oil markets analyst at S&P Global Commodity Insights in Beijing. China's manufacturing rebound has been tempered by the effects of slowing demand from its international export partners amid ongoing recessionary fears, as well as its own domestic property slowdown.
Slower economic activity has put the brakes on refined fuel demand, particularly for diesel. The official manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) dropped to 49.2 in April from 51.9 in March, falling below market expectations and the 50-point mark that separates expansion from contraction for the first time since December.
Arrivals at ports in Shandong province - a hub for independent refiners - also slowed in the latter half of April as customs officials tightened inspections after several Iranian cargoes were found to be mislabelled as diluted bitumen in an effort to bypass import quotas. Refined fuel exports fell 1.96% on last year to 3.75 million tonnes for April, the lowest monthly level since last July, amid lower refining margins and refinery maintenance. China imported 8.98 million tonnes of natural gas in April, up 11% from 8.09 million tonnes a year ago. (Reporting by Andrew Hayley; Editing by Christian Schmollinger, Jamie Freed and Sonali Paul)
