China, the planet’s biggest crude oil buyer, is on pace to import less oil in May than it has in any month over the past decade. Seaborne crude arrivals are tracking at roughly 6.5 to 7.5 million barrels per day, a sharp drop from April’s already weak 8.1 million b/d figure.
The numbers tell a grim story
April was already bad. China’s total crude imports that month came in at 9.3 million b/d, a 20% decline compared to the same period a year earlier. May is shaping up to be meaningfully worse, with some estimates pegging seaborne arrivals as low as 6.45 million b/d.
If that number holds, it would represent the lowest monthly import figure since 2016.
Refining throughput in April also took a hit, falling approximately 11% month-on-month to 54.65 million tons.
