BEIJING: China’s crude oil imports fell 9% in October, data showed on Thursday, a sixth consecutive monthly year-on-year decline as a plant closure at a state oil refinery adds to weaker demand from independent refiners.

The world’s largest crude oil importer brought in 44.7 million metric tons last month, or about 10.53 million barrels per day (bpd), data from the General Administration of Customs showed.

That was down from 11.07 million bpd in September and 11.53 million bpd in October 2023. Year-to-date imports totalled 457 million tons, or 10.76 million bpd, down 3.4% versus the year-ago period, the customs figures showed.

State major PetroChina shut a 90,000-bpd crude unit at its Dalian refinery in October, part of its plan to close the entire plant by around mid-2025 and replace it with a smaller facility at another site.

The lower imports were despite the ramping up of the 200,000-bpd newly started crude unit at Shandong Yulong Petrochemical, as many smaller plants in Shandong were operating at just over 50% of their capacity amid thin margins and sluggish fuel demand.

The PetroChina Dalian closure adds to the indefinite outage of Sinochem’s three Shandong-based plants, with combined capacity that makes up 3% of China’s national refinery output, after local courts declared them bankrupt.

China’s August crude oil imports fall 7% on weak demand, refining margins

Thursday’s data also showed China’s natural gas imports last month were up 20% on the year to 10.54 million metric tons, bringing year-to-date imports to 110 million tons, 13.6% above year-earlier levels.

Exports of refined oil products, which include diesel, gasoline, aviation fuel and marine fuel, were at 3.96 million tons, 23% lower on the year and down from 5.19 million tons in September.

Year-to-date exports of refined oil products fell 7.2% over the same year-ago period to 49.16 million tons.