China January-February crude imports surge on higher refinery throughput, stockpiling

BEIJING: China’s crude oil imports surged 15.8% in the first two months of 2026 from a year earlier, official data showed on Tuesday, as refiners maintained high throughput and increased stockpiling.

China releases combined import data for January and February to smooth out the impact of the week-long Lunar New Year holiday, which fell in the second half of February this year.

Imports in January and February totalled 96.93 million metric tons, or about 11.99 million barrels per day (bpd), according to the General Administration of Customs.

Chinese refineries’ capacity utilisation rate was 71.3% in January and 73.2% in February, both higher than in the year-earlier periods, according to Oilchem, a Chinese consultancy.

Higher crude imports were due to stronger refining throughput in the first two months of 2026, as well as stockpiling, with inventories rising by about 25 million barrels, said Emma Li, an analyst at ship-tracking firm Vortexa.

Seaborne crude imports reached 10.88 million bpd in January, up 2.1 million bpd from a year earlier; and 11.47 million bpd in February, up 1.7 million bpd from a year earlier, according to Kpler, a ship-tracking firm.

“The increase in Russian shipments in January and February was particularly notable, nearly doubling from a year ago,” said Muyu Xu, a Kpler analyst.

“This was mainly because India reduced its purchases, leaving more cargoes available to China at lower prices.”

Imports from Iran also rose slightly due to lower prices and as a substitute for Venezuelan crude, Xu added.

Customs data also showed that exports of refined oil products, including diesel, gasoline, aviation fuel and marine fuel, rose 12.7% to 8.13 million tons in the first two months of 2026.

Natural gas imports for January and February, including piped gas and liquefied natural gas, were down 1.1% from a year earlier to 20.02 million tons, the data showed.