China stores oil when Trump’s Trump’s Tariff Shock comes to gross prices

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Chinese oil traders let go of worries about the long -term economic damage of a United States trade war, as they seek to take advantage of one of the short -term consequences: the lowest prices of crude.

Imports of raw oil In China it increased in March and has continued to accelerate in April, according to analysts, as the country reungles actions despite the expectations that a weaker global economy will reduce demand.

Kpler, a data company that traces the tank trucks that browse ChinaHe said that the country was important almost 11 million barrels a day, the highest level in 18 months and more than 8.9 million B/D in January.

What began as a purchase of Iranian oil, due to fears of the most important sanctions in the United States, has become a wider storage of raw after President Donald Trump’s tariff ads, along with an increase in production by the OPEC oil cartel, sent prices to slide at least four years.

Benchmark Brent Crud then bounced off to trade about $ 65 on the barrel on Friday. Morgan Stanley believes that prices will remain under pressure, falling to an average of $ 62.50 a barrel in the second half of the year.

“China has always been very sensitive to the price,” said Giovanni Staunovo, an analyst at the UBS Bank Swiss oil market. “If the price is low, they are stored and reduced by purchase when the prices increase. I hope the data of this month will be higher than the last ones due to this strategic purchase.”

Johannes Ruball de Kpler said that Chinese oil stocks were low and said that he hoped that the current level of imports would continue in the coming months, as buyers take advantage of low prices to restore their inventories.

“You could see an increase in imports, even if the demand (for oil) is not collected so strongly,” he said.

Most analysts believe that the economic impact of the United States trade war will begin to reduce oil demand in the second half of this year, as the economy is beginning to delay.

But turbulence still does not seem to have severely affected China’s appetite for road or aviation fuel, and some refineries have delayed annual maintenance to continue producing gasoline, diesel and reaction fuel, while gross prices are low and margins are healthy, Singapore Emma, ​​a Singapore analyst in Vortexa Market Data Company.

“No one knows what will happen in the following months, especially in the second half,” he added. “But demand seems quite healthy, so I don’t expect too much decrease.”

China is the largest oil importer in the world and the main oil market that has been forced to leave other markets, including Russian, Iranian and Venezuelan.

Chinese buyers have reduced Iranian oil purchases since the beginning of April, when the United States imposed – Sanctions in a refinery In the east of the province of Shandong, the home of many private Chinese refinators. After importing a record of 1.8 million B/D of Iranian oil in March, purchases have dropped to 1.2 million B/DA in April, said Kpler.

“There is some caution within private refineries and there have been some logistical obstacles with some sanctioned tank trucks,” said Rauball, who added that the amount of Iranian crude tree was rapidly increasing. “We currently see 40 million barrels in 36 ships. The 18mn barrels are in Singapore, 10MN are in the Yellow Sea and about 4 million in the South China Sea.”

He added that private refineries are likely to continue important Iranian crude because of their discount price.

“Their margins are thin and do not have an alternative. They do not matter to Iran or fail,” said Rauball. “Many of them are not linked to the United States financial system, so the consequences are less even if they are affected.”