CHINA reduced net crude oil imports to the lowest level in 18 months as prices and stockpiles increased.
Net purchases dropped to 16.1 million metric tons last month, or 3.8 million barrels, from a record in September, according to customs data released yesterday. Net imports in October were the smallest since May 2009.
China paid on average 2 percent more in October for each barrel of crude purchased from overseas compared with the previous month as global benchmark prices rose. The imports, which reached an all-time high of 22.9 million tons in September, will help meet rising energy demand from car owners and factories in the nation.
Domestic oil refiners crude stockpiles have been boosted by record imports in the past months, said Gong Jinshuang, an engineer at the research unit of China National Petroleum Corp., the country s biggest oil producer.
Crude imports in the first 10 months surged 20 percent from a year earlier to 197.6 million tons, customs data showed. China s net imports of oil products, including gasoline and diesel, gained for a third month in October, rising 18 percent to 840,000 tons.
The imports will help plug diesel shortages in the country. Factories are buying up diesel, depleting supplies for trucks, as government-mandated electricity restrictions force them to use the transport fuel to power their generators.
China is curbing industrial electricity use in a last-ditch effort to meet government s goal of cutting energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product by 20 percent in the five years ending 2010. That s prompting some manufacturers to turn to their own diesel generators at the same time, said Qiu Xiaofeng, an oil analyst at China Merchants Securities Ltd. (SD-Agencies)
