China June crude oil imports fall 11% on year, H1 imports down 2.3%
Corrects milestone in paragraph 3 to "the second-highest on record", not "an all-time high"
SINGAPORE, July 12 (Reuters) -China's crude oil imports in June were down 11% from a high base a year earlier, official customs data showed on Friday, as independent refiners continued to curb production due to weak profit margins and as fuel demand remained tepid.
June arrivals into the world's largest crude oil buyer were 46.45 million metric tons, or about 11.3 million barrels a day (bpd), data from the General Administration of Customs showed.
That's up slightly from 11.06 million bpd in May but off from the second-highest on recordat 12.67 million bpd in June 2023.
Higher crude oil prices and weaker-than-expected domestic consumptions for both gasoline and diesel are weighing on refining margins.
Imports for the first-half of 2024 totalled about 275 million tons, or 11.05 million bpd, down 2.3% on the year, in one of the few and the steepest annual declines for year-to-date volumes since early 2023, according to Reuters' records of customs data.
Gasoline demand between January and May fell nearly 2% year-on-year and that of diesel dropped 14%, according to Chinese commodities consultancy Sublime China Information.
Large refineries such as privately controlled Hengli Petrochemical, state-run Sinopec's Zhanjiang and PetroChina's Dalian plants completed planned maintenance in late May and June, supporting in part purchases for the month.
However, smaller independent plants in the eastern refining hub of Shandong that make up one-fifth of the country's total imports, continued to curb buying in face of prolonged thin margins, with some shifting to lower-priced fuel oil as feedstock.
Crude oil imports may receive additional support in the coming months from a government mandate to boost state reserves by nearly 60 million barrels by next March.
(Metric ton = 7.3 barrels for crude oil conversion)
Reporting by Chen Aizhu; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Raju Gopalakrishnan
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