Tankers: China Crude Oil Imports Lower So Far in 2025

Crude oil imports from China have been lower during the first four months of the year. In its latest weekly report, shipbroker Banchero Costa said that “in Jan-Dec 2024, global crude oil loadings went up by a modest +0.4% y-o-y to 2194.6 mln tonnes, excluding all cabotage trade, according to vessels tracking data from LSEG. This year started even worse, with global loadings in Jan-Apr 2025 down by -1.0% y-o-y to just 728.2 mln tonnes. Exports from the Arabian Gulf were down by -2.5% y-o-y to 285.1 mln t in Jan-Apr 2025, accounting for 39.2% of seaborne crude trade. Exports from Russian ports (including oil of Kazakh origin) also declined by -13.5% y-o-y in Jan-Apr 2025 to 69.1 mln tonnes, or 9.5% of global trade. From South America, exports increased by +4.8% y-o-y to 70.6 mln t, with a share of 9.7%. From the USA, exports declined by -8.8% y-o-y at 60.9 mln tonnes in Jan-Apr 2025, an 8.4% share. From South East Asia exports increased by +9.8% y-o-y to 48.5 mln t in Jan-Apr 2025 (but this inevitably reflects changes in the re-export of Russian origin volumes).

Source: Banchero Costa

According to Banchero Costa, “in terms of demand, the top seaborne importer of crude oil in Jan-Apr 2025 was Mainland China, accounting for 22.9% of global trade. Volumes into China declined -4.2% yo-y to 163.2 mln t in Jan-Apr 2025. Imports to the EU27 declined by -10.5% y-o-y to 143.8 mln t, accounting for 20.1% of global trade. To ASEAN, imports declined by -3.1% y-o-y to 87.1 mln t (again this includes Russian volumes later reexported elsewhere in Asia). To India, volumes increased +3.7% yo-y to 81.6 mln t in Jan-Apr 2025. Mainland China is right now the largest importer of crude oil in the world, with a 23.3% share, once again marginally ahead of the European Union’s 21.5% share. In Jan-Dec 2023, China imported 514.9 mln tonnes of crude oil by sea, excluding cabotage, according to Refinitiv vessel tracking data. This represented a jump of +14.2% y-o-y compared to the 450.9 mln tonnes imported in 2022. In Jan-Dec 2024, imports into China corrected slightly by -0.6% y-o-y to 511.8 mln tonnes”.

The shipbroker said that “in Jan-Apr 2025, crude imports volumes into China corrected downwards by -4.2% y-o-y to 163.2 mln t, from 170.3 mln t in the first 4 months of 2024, but still above the 162.1 mln t in Jan-Apr 2023. About 85 percent of volumes discharged in China in Jan-Dec 2024 were carried in VLCCs, about 4 percent were carried in Suezmaxes, and about 11 percent in Aframaxes. Main crude oil import terminals in China are: Ningbo/Zhoushan (75.9 mln tonnes in Jan-Dec 2024), Lanshan (54.0 mln t), Dongjiakou (38.5), Dalian (38.3), Qingdao (33.1), Zhanjiang (27.3), Beilun (24.5), Huizhou (24.1), Tianjin (22.3), Yantai (21.3), Quanzhou (21.3), Jieyang (16.6), Cezi (14.6), Caofeidian (13.8)”.

Source: Banchero Costa

“In terms of sources of the shipments, the majority of China’s oil imports arrives from the Middle East. Saudi Arabia is the single largest exporter to China, accounting for 16.4% of volumes in Jan-Apr 2025. In Jan-Apr 2025, China imported 26.8 mln tonnes of crude oil from Saudi Arabia, up +5.6% y-o-y on the same period of last year. In the same period, imports from Iraq to China increased by +7.9% y-oy to 22.4 mln t, and from Kuwait by +35.5% y-o-y to 5.5 mln t. Volumes from the UAE to China declined by -16.4% y-o-y to 9.8 mln t, and from Oman by -15.3% y-o-y to 12.2 mln t. Direct shipments from Russia declined by -32.7% y-o-y in Jan-Apr 2025 to 12.5 mln t. Russia now accounts for just 7.6% of China’s overall seaborne crude oil imports. Imports from ASEAN (which includes some trans-shipment of Iranian and Russian oil) declined by -17.2% y-o-y to 15.5 mln t in Jan-Apr 2025, and from South America by -8.9% y-o-y to 15.1 mln t (of which 12.1 mln t from Brazil)”, Banchero Costa concluded.
Nikos Roussanoglou, Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide