CHINA'S OIL IMPORTS UP 11%

PLATTS - China's crude oil imports jumped 10.8% year on year to hit 10.08 million b/d in September, crossing over 10 million b/d mark again since April, preliminary data from the General Administration of Customs showed Monday.

The country's crude imports was at a record high of 10.68 million b/d in April and declined to 9.5 million b/d in May before gradually recovering to the September level.

The volume in the last month was 1% higher from 9.97 million b/d in August.

GAC releases data in metric tons, which S&P Global Platts converts to barrels using a 7.33 conversion factor.

The country's crude imports in September totaled 41.24 million mt, the preliminary GAC data showed.

On a metric ton basis, it was 2.2% lower than the 42.17 million mt in August.

This latest data brings China's total crude oil imports in the first nine months of this year to 369.04 million mt or 9.91 million b/d, up 9.7% from a year ago.

Fuel oil imports, however, dropped 49.5% year on year and fell 10.9% from August to 874,000 mt in September.

As a result, China oil products imports fell 26.5% year on year to 2.14 million mt.

But oil products exports surged 39.6% year on year to 5.68 million mt in September, representing a 39.4% jump from August, GAC data showed.

The strong growth was partly due to relative low bases in a year ago and in August.

The outflow in September was slightly higher than the country's monthly average oil product exports at 5.31 million mt/month in the first three quarters.

Healthy oil products exports and slowing inflows led the country's net oil product export rocketed 207.2% year on year to 3.54 million mt in September.

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