Zero US Crude oil exports to China recorded for second month

Nov 09 2018


The lack of US seaborne exports of crude oil to China recorded in August, continued into September.

This is despite crude oil not being a part of the ‘official trade war’, BIMCO’s Peter Sand said.

 “The trade war between the US and China is now impacting trade in both tariffed and some untariffed goods with both countries looking elsewhere for alternative buyers and sellers.

“Tonne/mile demand generated by total US crude oil exports has risen 17% from August to September, but is down 4.8% from the record high in July.

“For the crude oil tanker shipping industry distances often matter more than volumes, with exports of US crude oil to Asia generating 74% of tonne/mile demand in September, up from 70% in August,” Sand explained.

In 2017, Chinese imports accounted for 23% of total US crude oil exports. For the first seven months of this year, the number was 22%, but has dropped to zero in August and September.

For the seventh month in a row, total US crude oil exports, excluding to china, hit a new all-time high reaching 7.9 mill tonnes in September.

South Korea has become the largest long-distance importer of US crude oil taking 1.1 mill tonnes in September, the highest level. Similarly, the next top three overseas importers of US crude oil, namely the UK, Taiwan (both at 0.94 mill tonnes) and the Netherlands (0.74 mill tonnes) all imported more in September than before.

Exports to Asia jumped in June and July, from a 43% share of total exports since the start of 2017 to reach a 56% share. This share was down to 46% in August, but climbed back to 51% in September.

The two other major importing regions in September were Europe (33%) and North and Central America (13%), while South America (2%), the Caribbean (1%) make up the rest.

 



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