China and India drop oil imports. The world’s factories slow down
Asia's largest crude buyers, China and India, imported lower volumes in April than March's multi-month highs, leaving overall imports of Asian crude last month lower than a month earlier.
Total shipments to Asia averaged 26.39 million barrels per day (bpd) in April, down from 27.6 million bpd in March, according to data from Refinitiv Oil Research cited Thursday by the Reuters columnist Clyde Russell .
China and India, the largest and second largest importers of crude oil in Asia, reduced imports in April compared to March. China – which imported its highest crude oil volumes in three years in March – recorded arrivals of just 10.67 million bpd in April, down sharply from 12.37 million bpd, according to data from Refinitiv. imported in March.
India, for its part, was estimated to have imported 4.6 million bpd of crude oil in April, down from an eight-month high of 5.02 million bpd in March.
Russia continued to be the top crude supplier to both China and India, according to Refinitiv data, as the two big importers are grabbing Russian crude that is cheaper than international benchmarks.
Oil prices moved higher in the first two weeks of April after major OPEC+ producers, led by the largest Middle Eastern producers, announced a total of 1.16 million bpd of new production cuts between May and December on April 2. of this year.
Since mid-April, oil prices have fallen to their lowest level this year on heightened concerns about the Chinese recovery, with an unexpected slowdown in manufacturing activity in April, as well as concerns about the US banking sector and for the looming recession after another interest rate hike by the Fed.
But higher crude oil prices in early April and higher official Middle Eastern selling prices for cargoes in May could mean a weakening of imports into China and India in the coming weeks, which also coincide with the peak maintenance season for refineries.
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The article China and India drop oil imports. The World's Factories Slow Down comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/cina-e-india-calano-le-importazioni-di-petrolio-le-fabbriche-del-mondo-rallentano/ on Fri, 05 May 2023 07:00:06 +0000.