China's September fuel oil imports via Huangpu dip 19% on August

Hong Kong (Platts)--3Nov2005

Fuel oil imports entering China via the Huangpu port in southern
Guangdong province reached 663,185mt in September, a 19.2% drop from August's 
820,627mt, figures released by China's General Administration of Customs 
showed. The largest fuel oil imports bulk-breaking port in China also saw its
September volume dip 6.61% year-on-year. 
     The monthly decline seen in Huangpu was in stark contrast with a 13.71% 
increase in China's overall fuel oil imports in September compared with August
at 2.23-mil mt. The September national total was also 20.43% more than the
1.85-mil mt recorded in the same month of 2004. 
     The fall in Huangpu's fuel oil imports dragged down the volume entering
Guangdong province in September to 1.06-mil mt, compared with August's
1.13-mil mt and 1.41-mil mt a year ago. 
     The Qingdao port in eastern Shandong province received 386,951mt of fuel 
oil imports in September, slipping 16.4% from 462,878mt the previous month but
164.66% higher year-on-year. A lot of small, independent refineries in
Shandong crack fuel oil imports to produce middle and lighter distillates. But
their refining margins have been being squeezed since earlier this year as 
prices for gasoil and gasoline in the mainland markets are set at an
artificially low level by the central government in order to minimize their
inflationary impact on the economy. 
     Meanwhile, Singapore became China's largest fuel oil import supplier in
September at 438,614mt, up 27.8% from the previous month and 11.48% higher
year-on-year. Russia inched one slot lower to second place, supplying
428,894mt, down 30.38% from August and 3.86% on September 2004. Imports from
another key supplier, South Korea, were 381,998mt in September, down 22,111mt
from the previous month but 20.55% higher than a year ago. 
     In the nine months ended Sep 30, 2005, China imported 19.74-mil mt of
fuel oil, a 13.01% decline over the same period last year. The drop in imports
entering Huangpu port was higher than the national total at 21.44%, with
imports standing at 6.97-mil mt.
     However, Huangpu remains the single largest bulk-breaking center in China
for imported fuel oil cargoes, accounting for 35.31% of the country's
January-September 2005 total. Huangpu's market share of China's overall fuel
oil imports is shrinking, however, as its proportion was 39.1% in
January-September 2004. 
     Fuel oil imports processed by customs at the Qingdao port amounted to
3.73-mil mt for the nine-month period, down 6.44% year-on-year. 
     South Korea, Singapore and Russia together accounted for 65.64% of
China's January-September fuel oil imports at 12.95-mil mt.

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