China’s May crude imports at 4-mth low amid widespread refinery maintenance

China’s crude oil imports fell in May to their lowest daily rate in four months, data showed on Monday, as planned maintenance work at both state-owned and independent refiners picked up.

May imports in the world’s largest crude buyer totalled 46.6 million metric tons, equivalent to 10.97 million barrels per day (bpd), according to data from the General Administration of Customs.

The volume dropped by 3% compared with 48.06 million tons in April, and also fell 0.78% from May 2024.

In the first five months of 2025, China imported 229.61 million metric tons, or 11.1 million bpd, up 0.3% from the same period a year earlier, the data showed.

Maintenance affected a combined refining capacity of 129.9 million tons per year, or about 2.6 million bpd, up by 19.2 million tons from April, according to data by local consultancy Oilchem.

“May is typically the peak maintenance season in China, so refineries intentionally reduced their purchases of cargoes arriving in May,” Muyu Xu, Kpler’s senior crude oil analyst, said.

“In addition, crude prices were relatively high earlier, so long-term contract volumes, especially from Saudi Arabia, were significantly cut back. On top of that, Iranian oil arrivals were very low in May, which made overall seaborne imports quite weak.”

However, import are expected to rebound in June.

China April crude oil imports up

“That’s because the volume of long-term contract barrels from the Middle East arriving in June will increase notably, and arbitrage barrels from other regions, such as Brazilian crude, will also rise.

However, Iranian crude imports may remain low, roughly on par with May levels,“ Muyu Xu said. Monday’s data also showed China’s refined fuel exports fell 17.62% in May to 4.41 million tons from a year earlier.

Natural gas imports - including piped gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG) - fell 10.8% on the year to 10.11 million tons, the data showed.

Imports of spot LNG remained weak as Asian prices hovered above $11/mmBtu, a level deemed too expensive for Chinese buyers given ample domestic supplies and weaker-than-expected industrial consumption of the fuel, traders have said.