China’s official customs data showed the country imported 41.05 million tons of crude oil in September. That represents a drop of 15.3% from 48.47 million tons in September 2020. China’s September crude imports fell 7.8% from August’s 44.53 million tons. Saudi Arabia remained the country’s top supplier last month, even as shipments dropped 1.2% month-on-month to 7.96 million tons.
Russia was China’s second-largest crude supplier in September with 6.14 million tons, down 6% from August and 17.9% from September 2020. Iraq was in the third spot with 4.40 million tons, followed by Oman (4.17 million tons), Angola (3.14 million tons), the UAE (2.94 million tons), Kuwait (2.38 million tons), Malaysia (1.92 million tons), and Brazil (1.61 million tons).
Brazilian shipments fell sharply from 3.55 million tons in August and 4.50 million tons in September 2020. Brazil was once the third-largest supplier to China’s independent refiners behind Russia and Saudi Arabia. However, trading sources said those refiners had looked for alternatives due to the lower quality of imports from Brazil. One of them said the Brazilian producer keeps the favourable Tupi crude grade for its own consumption and sells the less popular Buzios to China.
