China’s crude oil imports remained robust in July, fuelled by higher Russian shipments, while China’s purchases from the US remained suspended for a second straight month.
The latest customs data shows that the volume of inbound crude oil reached 47.2 million tonnes in July, up 11.5 per cent from a year earlier.
China purchased 8.71 million tonnes of crude oil from Russia, making it the top source of China’s crude imports last month, according to the official data. This marked a year-on-year increase of 16.8 per cent, with its northern neighbour supplying nearly a fifth of crude imports. Meanwhile, China’s last import of crude oil from the US was in May.
China also imported 7.47 million tonnes of crude oil from Saudi Arabia in July – a year-on-year rise of 16.6 per cent. Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Malaysia were China’s other top crude oil suppliers last month.
Over the first seven months of the year, China imported 326.6 million tonnes of crude, up 2.8 per cent from the same period in 2024. Russia accounted for 17.7 per cent of this year’s total.
