Oil imports nearly double, exports fall 11.7% in first half

(30 August 2000) Chinas increasing oil imports may or may not reflect the countrys slowly growing economy, but the fact remains that Chinas imports of crude oil in the first half of this year nearly doubled from the same period last year.

The countrys oil exports also fell significantly11.7 percentin the first half of this year.

China imported 32.14 million tons of crude oil in the first half of 2000, which is more than it imported in the first 10 months of last year, according to the Aug. 24 Zhongguo Wuzi Bao (China Materials News). The country imported 4.51 million tons of oil in January, 5.82 million tons in February, 6.79 million tons in March, 5.6 million tons in April, 4.25 million tons in May and 5.44 million tons in June.

The mainland also spent an average of US$192 per ton of imported crude oil in the years first six months, which was 89.3 percent higher than the price of US$101 per ton in the same period last year.

Compared to the average per-ton price for the same period in 1999, this year, China spent an extra US$3 billion of its foreign currency reserves to import crude oil in the first half of 2000. This makes it imperative to have some form of risk control in importing crude oil, which may include oil futures or an oil reserve system, the article noted.

China exported 3.33 million tons of crude oil in this years first half, down 11.7 percent. Meanwhile, the countrys net imports of crude oil from January through June totaled 29.08 million tons.

Japan was the biggest buyer of Chinese crude oil in the first half of this year. Japan bought 2.05 million tons of crude oil, which accounted for 61.4 percent of Chinas crude oil exports for that period. In addition, Chinas exports of crude oil to Indonesia, the United States and Thailand constituted between 6 percent and 10 percent of its crude oil exports for the period.

Chinas major producers of exported crude oil during this years first half were Heilongjiang and Guangdong provinces, which produced 63.7 percent and 35.6 percent of the countrys total, respectively.

http://www.chinaonline.com/industry/energy/currentnews/secure/B100082434.asp

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), September 02, 2000

Answers

This is hard to believe. I thought China was, largely, energy self-sufficient.

-- R2D2 (r2d2@earthend.net), September 02, 2000.