Bad Credit Mortgage Refinance ®
		Home Page News You Can Use China's Jan crude oil imports hit record Fri February 20, 2004 12:49 AM ET (Page 1 of 2) (Adds details, traders' comment) BEIJING/SINGAPORE, Feb 20 (Reuters) - China, the world's second-biggest oil consumer, imported a record volume of crude in January, while slashing exports and boosting imports of diesel to meet strong domestic demand, official data showed on Friday. China's crude oil imports for January rose 23 percent from the same month last year to 10.3 million tonnes (2.5 million barrels per day), the General Administration of Customs said. The hefty purchases of crude oil were to feed Chinese refineries, which ran at a record monthly rate of 22.41 million tonnes, or 5.42 million bpd, the State Statistical Bureau had said on Wednesday. Crude oil exports rose 50 percent on the year to 717,302 tonnes. A shortfall of gas oil, or diesel, in China since late 2003 led to a 87 percent cut in January's light diesel exports to about 32,000 tonnes, against 245,000 tonnes a year earlier, customs said. The squeeze had also led China, a net diesel exporter, to boost gas oil imports in January by 42 percent to 111,682 tonnes. The uptrend in diesel imports had extended into early February, and traders estimated that China had bought more than 100,000 tonnes of diesel from the spot market for February. Strong Chinese buying before the Chinese New Year in late January helped to bolster prices to more than $40 a barrel. But purchases for the second half of February and March have slowed, reflected by high inventories in Hong Kong, the staging post for gas oil imports into China. "The tanks in Hong Kong are full. Chinese gas oil import demand has slowed," a trader said. Gas oil was last valued at $38.40 a barrel on Thursday. "With higher imports and lower exports of gas oil, China could see a growing surplus of the product in March and April as domestic inventories are growing due to record refinery outputs," said a trader with Sinopec Corp , Asia's top refiner. Chinese traders questioned the January gasoline export figure at 35,818 tonnes, which was way below market expectations and a fraction of last year's monthly average at 628,000 tonnes. "Either some of the January cargoes were pre-dated to December or post-dated to February. The number is simply ridiculously low," said a gasoline trader with China's second-largest refiner, PetroChina . The market had expected China, Asia's largest gasoline exporter, to sell about 400,000 tonnes of the product in January. The customs data showed China's total fuel oil imports were up about four percent to 1.9 million tonnes in January. A government think tank, the State Council Development and Research Centre, had forecast China's crude imports would reach a record of 96 million tonnes in 2004. China, the fastest-growing major economy in the world, has replaced Japan as the world's second-biggest oil consumer, after the United States. Back to Original Article: News You Can Use   Continue with: Dollar Surges Vs Yen on Security Alert Treasuries Sag as Dollar Climbs on Japan Foreign central banks crowd out US bond investors Consumer Prices Rise 0.5 Percent in Jan. Private Bush Meeting Gets Blogged Average Mortgage Rates Fall Japanese Govt. Says Economy Recovering Dollar Fights Back After Recent Drubbing Parents face tough choice on savings Stocks expected to open higher Oil Slips After Hitting $36 U.S. mortgage bonds slip after January CPI rise Greenspan Urges Care on Employment Issue
		Bad Credit Mortgage Refinance