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China April crude oil imports increase 5.45% on previous year

China's petroleum imports increased on the previous year in April, as refiners prepared for a. fully recuperated Labour Day vacation travel season, official data. revealed on Thursday.

Crude imports in April totalled 44.72 million metric loads,. or about 10.88 million barrels each day (bpd), according to data. from the General Administration of Customs.

That represented a 5.45% increase from the reasonably low. 10.4 million bpd imported in April 2023.

China saw more than 1.3 billion passenger trips over the. five day Labour Day vacation that started on May 1, up 2.1% from a. year earlier, state media outlet Xinhua reported.

Highway traffic was up 2.1% while air trips surged 8.1%,. Xinhua stated.

Domestic airline company seat capacity in April was up 1.3% on last. year, information from consultancy OAG showed.

China's production sector continued to see soft recovery. in April.

Imports slowed by 5.8% from March's level of 11.55 million. bpd. China's unrefined buying decreased on strengthened crude oil. rates and damaged domestic diesel need, said Lin Ye, an. expert at Rystad Energy in Beijing.

China's unrefined need is expected to be supported by. larger export quota this year and new refinery start-up later on. this year, she added.

Chinese consultancy JLC said ahead of the data that it. forecast sea-borne oil shipments to fall 4.6% in April from. March due to tight earnings margins and the arrival of maintenance. season.

JLC projection maintenance at state-owned refineries to peak. in the 2nd quarter, with a knock-on effect on April refinery. throughput. However, the quantity of capability shutdown for. maintenance at state-owned refineries is to be 24% lower than. last year, according to information mentioned by China commodities. consultancy MySteel.

Natural gas imports for April increased 14.7% from a year earlier. to 10.30 million tons, customizeds data revealed.

Prices of LNG for Asia << LNG-AS > at the end of April were. down 11.3% on the exact same period last year, and down 43% from last. year's peak in October.

Custom-mades data likewise revealed exports of refined oil items,. which include diesel, fuel, aviation fuel and marine fuel,. were up 21.46% from a year earlier at 4.55 million lots.

(source: Reuters)