China June diesel exports rise on year ago
BEIJING (Reuters) — China's exports of diesel rose in June on a year ago as refiners turn to foreign markets to offload their excess product, while liquefied natural gas imports also rose, customs data showed on Sunday.
Diesel exports rose 19% in June to 1.31 MMt, figures from the General Administration of Customs showed. That is up from 1.23 MMt in May but less than the all-time high of 1.91 MMt hit in April.
Gasoline exports of 770,000 t were down 30% from a record 1.1 MMt last June, but were up from 639,799 t in May.
The data came after figures on Monday showed that oil refineries in one of the world's top crude importers ramped up throughput last month to the second highest on record, even as state oil majors prepared to take drastic steps to cut production during the peak summer season.
The high monthly shipments led to big increases in the first half and will reinforce concerns that China, one of the world's top energy markets, is contributing to a fuel overhang as refiners churn out more products like gasoline and diesel than the market can absorb.
For the first six months of 2017, China's diesel exports were up 21% to 7.97 MMt, Sunday's data showed.
China became a net exporter of fuel products in late 2016.
China's imports of LNG in June were up 38.6% at 3.04 MMt.
Reporting by Hallie Gu and Elias Glenn; Editing by Richard Pullin
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