China plans to export 12.4% less refined petroleum products in November compared to this month, Chinese media report, citing a survey by OilChem.
Total fuel exports are planned at 2.54 million tons, of which 800,000 tons of gasoline, 180,000 gasoil, and 1.56 million tons of kerosene. The gasoline allocation is 3.9% higher than the October allocation, the gasoil exports are planned 28% lower than the October allocation, and kerosene exports will be 18% lower than they were in October, the survey also showed.
Refinery processing rates have extended their decline, meanwhile and exports were falling, too. The September total stood at 5.2 million tons, which was down by 4.5% on the year. Of that, gasoline exports stood at 730,000 tons, which was down by 33% on the year, and diesel exports stood at 350,000 tons, a sharp drop from both last year and the previous month. Jet fuel exports were the only ones to rise, by 11.8%.
Earlier this month, China issued the last quarterly batch of fuel export quotas, which stood at 9 million tons. The bulk of the quotas comprises clean refined fuels, with the remainder of 1 million tons in bunkering fuel. Almost 6.4 million tons of the new quotas were issued to state-owned refiners including Sinopec, CNPC, and CNOOC.
This latest batch will bring the total fuel export quotas for the year to 54 million tons, the report said, which was virtually unchanged on 2023 quotas.
Chinese refiners have been struggling with falling margins lately, with run rans falling by 10% in August to 12.6 million barrels daily, as sector players capped production to preserve profits. In the meantime, they built inventories, at a rate of 3.2 million barrels daily, which would be the largest monthly increase in inventories since 2015, ING commodity analysts wrote in a recent note.
