China's oil product sales hit record high in August

Thanks to recovering domestic demand, China’s product oil sales touched 18.78 million tons in August, up 3.2 percent year-on-year and 8.1 percent over the previous month, hitting the monthly highest level since the beginning of 2009, the latest statistics from the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Association (CPCIA) shows. Diesel sales stood at 11.94 million tons, up 0.9 percent over a year earlier while growing 8.6 percent compared with July 2009. China raised the prices of gasoline and diesel fuel by 300 yuan (US$43.93) a ton, or about 4 percent on September 2. After the price adjustment, the retail price of gasoline increased by 0.22 yuan (US$0.032) a liter and diesel fuel by 0.26 yuan (US$0.038) a liter. (September 27, 2009)