Singapore (Platts)--10Aug2012/645 am EDT/1045 GMT

China's crude oil imports in July rose 12.4% year on year to 21.83 million mt or an average 5.16 million b/d, according to preliminary customs data released Friday.

July imports were up from June's absolute volume of 21.72 million mt (5.31 million b/d) but down 2.8% on a barrel/day basis, the lowest so far this year.

Despite the month-on-month decline, China's crude imports continue to show strong growth this year with a 10.2% year-on-year growth to 161.9 million mt (5.57 million b/d) in the first seven months of the year, according to the data. A year ago, it was 6.3%.

Crude oil exports in July rose 5% year on year to 210,000 mt, although over January-July, crude exports dipped 0.5% year on year to 1.49 million mt. Total oil product imports in July were flat at 3.09 million mt, compared with 3.08 million mt in July 2011. Year to date, oil product imports fell 3.4% to 23.31 million mt.

Oil product exports in July tumbled 22.4% year on year to 1.77 million mt, while total volumes exported in the first seven months fell 11.1% to 13.63 million mt.

This brings net oil product imports in July to 1.32 million mt, up 65% year on year.

Crude processing rates in July rose 1.1% year on year and 4.5% month on month to 37.6 million mt (8.89 million b/d), data from the National Bureau of Statistics released Thursday showed.

--Song Yen Ling, yen_ling_song@platts.com --Edited by E Shailaja Nair, shailaja_nair@platts.com

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