China's October fuel oil imports down for four months in a row

Hong Kong (Platts)--23Nov2006

China imported 1.87 million mt of fuel oil in October, a 30% fall from
2.67 million mt in the previous month, figures obtained Thursday from the
Chinese General Administration of Customs showed.
The country has trimmed its fuel oil imports in the past four months
after reaching a recent high of 3.29 million mt last June.
On year, fuel imports dropped 4.6% drop from 1.96 million mt seen in
October 2005. Fuel oil imports accounted for 69% of the country's total oil
products imports of 2.7 million mt in October.
The fall in fuel oil imports last month dragged China's overall products
imports in October 21% lower from September's 3.43 million mt.
The customs tallied 570,000 mt of kerosene imports in October, a bit
higher than September's 56,000 mt. Gasoil imports, at 60,000 mt, were 20%
higher than September.
A major gasoline exporter in Asia, China lifted its October exports to
320,000 mt, up 78% from September and doubled the volume achieve a year
earlier. Kerosene exports however fell 15.6% to 270,000 mt last month from
September's 320,000 mt.
The customs tallied 150,000 mt of fuel oil exports in October, versus
250,000 mt the previous month and 130,000 mt a year ago.
Strong rebound was seen for October's crude exports to 810,000 mt from
130,000 mt in September. On-year comparison also showed a 131% increase.

STRONG APPETITE FOR PRODUCTS IMPORTS
China's appetite for oil products imports stayed strong in the first 10
months of this year. The customs reported a 24% on-year spike in volume at
31.86 million mt during the January-October period.
The country paid $13.6 billion for its products imports in the 10-month
period, some 66.3% higher than a year earlier.
January-October fuel oil imports alone contributed to 78.8% of China's
total oil products imports at 25.1 million mt. The volume was 17.38% higher
than a year ago. Kerosene imports almost doubled to 4.5 million mt -- the
biggest increase attained by any oil products imports in the 10-month period.
To meet its own growing energy requirement, China is also cutting overall
petroleum exports and retaining more of its output for domestic consumption.
Chinese oil products exports in January-October were 17.5% less than a year
earlier at 10 million mt. Despite the volume drop, revenues from the products
exports still posted a 5.5% gain at $5.7 billion.
Gasoline exports suffered a 46% plunge to 2.79 million mt, as compared
with 5.15 million mt in the same 2005 period. Gasoil exports also fell 44% to
710,000 mt.
Meanwhile, China earned $2.17 billion from 5.1 million mt of crude
exports in the first 10 months of 2006. The revenues were 18.8% higher on the
year, even though the barrels sold were 12% less during the comparison
periods.
The country's crude procurement bill for January-October reached $56.1
billion, rising 43.8% from a year earlier. During this period, China only
imported 14% more crude at 120 million mt.

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