China to issue more crude import quotas: Reuters

China’s Ministry of Commerce is set to issue crude import quotas totaling 53.8M tonnes to 31 independent refiners and five traders affiliated with state-run companies, Reuters reports. The new quotas are in addition to the 103.8M tonnes issued in December. The second round of quotas this year is lower than the second round in 2019 which totaled 56.9M tonnes, but the year-to-date total for 2020 is 157.6M tonnes, 6.6M tonnes above the 2019 level at this point in the year. There is often a smaller third allocation later in the year. The official announcement of the quotas is expected in the coming days.