China’s oil refinery throughput rose in March as refiners stepped up runs amid signs of a tentative economic recovery in the world’s second largest consumer of crude.
Total refinery throughput was 63.78 million metric tonnes, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed on Tuesday. That was equivalent to 15.09 million barrels per day (bpd), up from 14.45 million in the January-February period.
Run rates were 1.3 per cent higher than the figure of 14.9 million bpd last March, a record at the time, as refiners stockpiled fuel ahead of scheduled maintenance.
China’s crude imports slipped 6.23 per cent in March on the year to stand at 11.55 million bpd.
China’s economy grew 5.3 per cent in the first quarter year-on-year, official data also showed on Tuesday, comfortably beating analysts’ expectations that first-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) would expand 4.6 per cent.
Though a protracted property crunch has been a major economic headwind, manufacturing activity surprised to the upside last month. The official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) expanded for the first time in six months in March, buoyed by higher export orders.
Domestic transport fuel demand got a boost from the brief Qingming festival travel period in early April. Car trips over the holidays rose 52.3 per cent year-on-year to 683 million from a year earlier, state news agency Xinhua said.
Nonetheless, sluggish diesel demand amid weaknesses in the mining and infrastructure construction sector capped runs, industry consultancy Vortexa said ahead of the data.
Crude throughput last month was forecast by Vortexa to rise by about 200,000 bpd, accompanied by an increase of roughly 2.5 million barrels in onshore crude inventories.
NBS data also showed China’s crude oil production in March was rose 1.2 per cent from a year earlier to 18.37 million tonnes, about 4.32 million bpd.
That was the highest level since June 2015. China has been investing heavily in domestic production to offset a decline in output starting from 2015.
Natural gas production grew 4.5 per cent to hit a record 21.6 billion cubic metres (bcm) from last year’s 20.5 bcm.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
First Published: Apr 16 2024 | 9:46 AM IST
