Higher volume: Motorists at a petrol station in Shanghai. Domestic demand for petrol is anticipated to be high because of a pick-up in road traffic over the summer travel period. — Bloomberg
BEIJING: China’s diesel exports in August surged from a year earlier and have nearly tripled so far in 2023 compared with the same time a year ago, data shows, as refiners take advantage of strong regional refining margins to ship fuel overseas.
Exports of diesel, the biggest fuel by share of refinery output, last month totalled 1.26 million tonnes, up 51.5% from last year’s 830,000 tonnes, data from the General Administration of Customs showed.
Total diesel exports for the first eight months of the year are up 197.2% versus the same period in 2022.
Domestic diesel demand has seen only muted growth amid deepening tumult in the property sector and contracting exports, pushing refiners to shift their output overseas.
Petrol exports were up 23.7% to 1.38 million tonnes from 1.12 million tonnes in August last year.
Domestic demand for petrol was anticipated to be high through August because of a pick-up in road traffic over the summer travel period, the first since 2019 not to be disrupted by Covid-19 containment measures.
China’s jet fuel exports were 1.55 million tonnes, up 98.1% from 780,000 tonnes a year earlier.
Domestic flight capacity by available seats was up to about 17% of pre-pandemic levels in August 2019, while capacity on international flights in and out of China remained at around 49% of pre-pandemic levels, according to data from aviation analytics firm OAG.
Sales of jet fuel for outbound international flights are included in this export figure. China’s surging fuel exports have coincided with monthly refinery throughput rising to a record 15.23 million barrels per day in August.
Total fuel exports, including marine bunker fuel, in August were up 23.3% from last year at 5.89 million tonnes, customs data showed earlier this month.
Profit margins for Asian refiners continued their upward trend through August to end the month at about US$12.60 a barrel, the highest since late January and up around US$2 a barrel from July.
“High oil prices and high stocks should prompt China to import less crude and petroleum products in the period ahead particularly for inventory refill purposes, and to export more petroleum products,” analysts from Citi wrote in a client note.
Authorities issued a third batch of product export quotas at the start of September, comprising 12 million tonnes for refined fuels such as petrol and kerosene and three million tonnes for marine fuel.
The data released yesterday also showed China imported 6.3 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas in August, up 34.1% from last year’s 4.72 million tonnes. — Reuters
