China’s Oil-Processing Falls to 9-Month Low on Maintenance

China’s daily oil-processing volume in June fell to the lowest in nine months after refiners shut units for maintenance.Processing dropped 0.7 percent, the first decline since

February 2009, to 35.55 million metric tons, or 8.69 million barrels a day, from a year earlier, according to figures released by the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing today. Daily refining, the lowest since September, slid 4 percent from a month earlier.
Refiners boosted production to a record 9.22 million barrels a day in February to build stockpiles before halting some of their units for maintenance. In the second half of June, plants cut processing rates to the lowest since 2010 because of maintenance in the northern part of the nation, Shandong-based Oilchem.net said on July 1.
“The refinery maintenance was reflected in the lower throughput,” Brynjar Eirik Bustnes, an analyst at JPMorgan Chase & Co., said by telephone from Hong Kong. “We will see about the same amount of throughput in July with maintenance continuing into the month.”
Diesel demand should be strong given the industrial production growth, he said.
China will shut seven major refineries, with a combined capacity of 35.25 million tons a year, or 707,800 barrels a day, in the third quarter, according to Gong Manying, a market research director at PetroChina Co., the nation’s second-largest oil refiner.
Oil Products
Oil processing gained 7 percent to 223 million tons in the first half.
China’s net imports of crude oil fell to an eight-month low in June. Net imports dropped 10 percent from a month earlier and 12 percent from a year earlier to 4.7 million barrels a day, according to customs data on July 10.
Gasoline output slipped 4.2 percent to 6.2 million tons from a year earlier, kerosene gained 0.1 percent to 1.48 million tons and diesel climbed 1.1 percent to 13.5 million tons, according to the federation. Fuel oil production gained 5 percent to 1.5 million tons and natural-gas output gained 9.7 percent to 81.6 billion cubic meters.
China’s gross domestic product rose 9.5 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier, beating analyst estimates of 9.3 percent, the statistics bureau said today. Industrial output advanced 15.1 percent in June, the most since May 2010.
Source: Bloomberg