China’s net imports up 9% in first half

China net imports of oil products including crude oil, oil products and LPG reached 136 million metric tons in the first six months of 2011. Based on statistics provided by the General Administration of Customs of China (GAC), this is an increase of 9% from 124.8 million tons during the same period last year. Oil net imports reached 68.8858 million tons in the first quarter of 2011, but dropped to 67.1433 million tons in the second quarter. Many refineries had maintenance checks in a bid to cope with the expected rise in demand in the second half. This reduced domestic crude oil refining output to 35.5558 million tons in June. Crude imports were low at 19.69 million tons during the said period. The growth of apparent demand for major oil products including gasoline, kerosene, diesel fuel, lubricating oil, fuel oil, LPG and chemical light oil, went down to 4.9% year-on-year in the second quarter after a surge of 12.3% in the first quarter. Net imports of crude oil grew by 6.9% to 124.9 million tons in the first six months of 2011. (August 8, 2011)