China's crude oil imports rose 8% year on year to 25.41 million mt in November, or an average 6.21 million b/d, preliminary General Administration of Customs data released Monday, December 8, showed.
The volume was also up 8.9% month on month. China did not export any crude oil in November, so net crude oil imports were up 8.5% year on year.
Over January-November, China's total crude imports rose 9% year on year to 278.01 million mt, averaging 6.1 million b/d.
This is the highest pace of growth over the 11-month period since 2010, when expansion was 19.8%.
Meanwhile, China's oil product imports plunged 16% year on year to 2.37 million mt in November, with inflows of fuel oil falling 14.4% over the same period to 1.25 million mt.
Oil product exports in November, on the other hand, rose 15.6% to 2.44 million mt.
This means China was a net oil exporter of oil products in November with a volume of 70,000 mt, although this was significantly lower than net oil product exports of 860,000 mt in October.
Other detailed trade data for November, including the import and export of other individual oil products, is expected to be released later this month.
China has now turned a slight overall net exporter of oil products to date in 2014.
Oil product imports fell 26.1% over January-November from the same period in 2013 to 26.78 million mt, according to the data.
Oil product exports rose 3.8% over the same period to 26.85 million mt.
Much of the slump in imports is due to fuel oil, with inflows declining 26% year on year over January-November to 15.79 million mt.
Fuel oil demand in China is witnessing structural decline because of lower consumption by the country's independent refiners, known locally as teapot refineries, which have started using more crude oil and a bitumen-blend feedstock known as asphalt in the last two years.
Fuel oil now accounts for a fifth of the teapot refiners' overall cracking feedstock, compared with about 40% during 2013.
