China’s crude oil imports fall to five-month low

Oil

China’s crude oil imports declined by 170K b/d (or 2%) m-o-m and 1.66M b/d (or 15%) y-o-y to 9.69M b/d in May, falling for the third month in a row to the lowest level since December 2020, according to China customs data. Arrivals have continued to be suppressed by ongoing refinery maintenance in China, with around 1.2M b/d of capacity offline in May, up from around 1M b/d in April, Reuters report.