China's April oil imports drop 16% on month, 0.2% on year

London (Quantum Commodity Intelligence) - China imported 9.82 million b/d of crude oil in April, or 40.358 million mt, a 0.2% drop on the year and down 16% on the month, according to data published Friday by Chinese Customs.

The slowdown on the month comes after a strong first quarter for imports with independent refiners snapping up quotas in the first part of the year and with profitability falling as crude prices increased.

This left the January-April figure at 179.576 million mt, or 10.924 million b/d, an increase of 7.2% year-on-year.

Meanwhile, exports of refined products from China were 6.82 million mt, on par with the March figure of 6.83 million and taking the year-to-date outflow to 24.608 million mt, a 5.3% fall on the year.