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Staff of Reuters Read for 2 minutes Reuters, July 13 – China’s crude oil imports declined 3% from January to June, according to figures released on Tuesday by the General Administration of Customs. However, imports of soybeans, natural gas, and iron ore increased in the first half of this year compared to the same period last year, as the world’s second-largest economy recovered from COVID-19 disruptions. KEY POINTS: * China’s crude oil imports decreased by 3% in January to 261 million tonnes; * China’s soybean imports increased by 8.7% to 48.96 million tonnes; * China’s natural gas imports increased by 23.8 percent to 59.82 million tonnes; * China’s iron ore imports increased by 2.6 percent to 561 million tonnes; * China’s wheat imports increased by 60.1 percent to 5.37 million tonnes; * China’s corn imports increased by * China’s iron ore imports fell to their lowest level since May 2020 in June. Table of preliminary commodity trade data TRADE/CN Analysts’ reactions to the commodities statistics are listed below. Observations on crude oil SUBLIME CONSULTANCY, SANG XIAO, OIL ANALYST “Crude oil imports decreased y-o-y in the first half of 2021, owing to rising global oil prices and refinery maintenance. Due to high oil prices and a reduction in import quotas at independent refineries, we predict China’s crude oil imports to continue to decline in the following two months.” SIA ENERGY SENIOR DIRECTOR SENG YICK TEE “Crackdowns on teapot crude quota trade and non-compliant crude supply to teapots by NOCs (national oil companies) substantially hurt crude imports in June.” Remarks on iron ore TIANFENG FUTURES ANALYST WU SHIPING “Despite the fact that miners have expanded their production capacity, iron ore arrivals at ports have been lower than planned due to force majeure. Arrivals may improve in the long run, but not in the near term.” LINKS: See the official customs website for further information (www.customs.gov.cn) BACKGROUND: China is the world’s largest importer of crude oil, as well as the world’s largest consumer of copper, coal, iron ore, and soybeans. (Jacqueline Wong edited the piece.)/nRead More

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