In September, Brazil jumped to the position as China’s third-biggest crude supplier on cheaper yet high-quality oil.
Data from China’s General Administration of Customs showed that last month, China purchased 4.49 million tonnes of crude from Brazil, up from 2.96 million tonnes in September 2019. Brazil overtook the position from Iraq, which dropped to the fifth position of China’s biggest supplier.
In the January-September period, China posted an increase in crude imports by 15.6% year-on-year from the country at 33.69 million tonnes. The country snapped up 13% more crude on a yearly basis in the period, on the back of strengthened refinery productions to meet speedy demand recovery alongside stocking up cheap oil at record-high rates.
Last month, Saudi Arabia returned to the first supplier position for China with exports to the country at 7.78 million tonnes or 1.89 million bpd, compared to the previous month’s 1.24 million bpd.
August’s first supplier Russia fell, as China bought 7.48 million tonnes or 1.82 million bpd. Still, the figures showed an 18.6% year-on-year climb and a 32.8% increase month-on-month. Also, Russia still tops the chart for the biggest supplier in the first nine months of 2020 with 64.62 million tonnes of total supply, up by 16% year-on-year.
Purchases of oil from the US also soared to 3.9 million tonnes last month, compared to the corresponding time in 2019 of only 517,982 tonnes.
