China’s Gasoline Exports Post Weekly Spike
Vortexa Snapshot: China’s Gasoline Exports Post Weekly Spike
07 August, 2019
- Chinese gasoline/blending components exports rose sharply to 470,000 mt (3.89mn bl) in week 31 (29 July – 4 August), versus year to date weekly average of 270,000 mt (2.25m bl), and highest weekly level since week 4 this year, according to Vortexa data.
- Higher weekly gasoline exports observed to be loaded mainly from Dalian, Qinzhou, Huizhou and Zhoushan ports. A third batch of product export quotas issued to state-owned refiners end-July allowed refiners to raise gasoline exports on the back of a rising surplus in the domestic market.
- Of week 31 exports, latest destination estimates show around 40% of the volume going to Singapore, just below the the year-to-date trend of more than 50%. Light distillate stocks in Singapore saw a slight uptick to 10mn bl last week, after hitting a multi-year low in the week ending 28 July.
- Two handymax vessels – STI St Charles and Scarlet Ibis, that loaded in week 31 from Quanzhou and Dalian respectively, are heading to Mexico for end-August/early-September arrival, as the arbitrage route continues to be open. It is interesting to note that China’s gasoline exports to Mexico in 2019 so far have already surpassed full-year 2018 levels.
- Despite weekly uptick at the end of July/beginning-August, China’s gasoline/blending components exports totalled 1.23mn mt in July, down from 1.43mn t in June.
