SINGAPORE: China’s crude oil imports in March rebounded sharply from the previous two months and were up nearly 5% from a year earlier, data showed on Monday, boosted by a surge in Iranian oil and a rebound in Russian oil deliveries.
March imports totalled 51.41 million metric tons, according to the General Administration of Customs, equivalent to 12.1 million barrels per day, the highest since August 2023, according to Reuters’ records of customs data.
That is up from 11.55 million bpd in March 2024 and 10.38 million bpd for the January-February period.
Arrivals of Iranian oil, which make up about 13% of Chinese total crude oil buys, surged in March as independent refiners and traders stocked up in anticipation of further US measures tightening future supplies.
Emma Li, an analyst at tanker analytics firm Vortexa, said her company’s tanker tracking showed China’s seaborne crude imports rebounded to 10.6 million bpd, the highest since October 2023, driven largely by record Iranian crude arrivals into the Shandong region.
Overall, Russian oil deliveries rebounded despite Washington’s toughest-ever sanctions on Moscow’s oil exports announced in January, as non-sanctioned tankers joined the transport taking advantage of surging freight rates.
State refiners, which have curbed purchases of Russian seaborne oil since March, have stepped up buying of alternative supplies from the Middle East, West Africa and South America to compensate.
For the first quarter as a whole, crude oil imports stood at 135.25 million tons, or 10.97 million bpd, was 1.5% lower compared with a year ago, the data showed.
Customs data also showed March exports of refined oil products, which included diesel, gasoline, aviation fuel and marine fuel, were at 5.24 million tons, down from 6.02 million tons in March 2024.
Exports in the first quarter totalled 12.46 million metric tons, down 16% on the year. China released a smaller amount of fresh export quotas versus a year ago and but the earlier-than-usual release weighed on Asian refining margins.
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Natural gas imports, including piped gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG), fell 15% last month over a year earlier at 9.16 million tons, and the first-quarter imports at 29.42 million tons were down 10% versus the same period of 2024.
China’s spot LNG demand remained subdued due to still high import cost and ample domestic supplies. Companies have also refrained from shipping in US LNG due to Beijing’s punitive tariffs amid a tit-for-tat US-China trade war.
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