China's bitumen imports fell but its exports rose in June on the back of softer domestic demand and high inventories.
Imports saw a 24pc fall from a month earlier to 357,526t, after reaching a seven-month high in May, which were also 17pc lower against the previous year.
South Korea, Singapore and Malaysia remained the three largest bitumen suppliers to China. Imports from South Korea and Malaysia fell by 16pc and 61pc from the previous month to 216,828t and 30,888t respectively. Exports from Singapore to China edged up slightly to 98,431t.
China's bitumen imports during this year's first half totalled 2.105mn t, down by 16.5pc from the same period a year earlier. The fall was in line with lower exports from South Korea. South Korea refiner S-Oil started a new 76,000 b/d residual fluid catalytic cracker in mid-2018, reducing its bitumen production and exports. Fellow South Korean refiner Hyundai Oilbank expanded its delayed coker unit capacity to 50,000 b/d in the third quarter of 2018, also cutting its production and exports of bitumen.
Bitumen exports from China in June more than doubled from May to 99,130t and were 11pc higher against a year earlier. Malaysia and Australia were two largest export destinations in June, receiving 50,027t and 26,025t respectively from China.
China exported 348,816t of bitumen during the first half, down by 14.6pc from the previous year. The drop in exports was largely because of reduced output from the 470,000 b/d Maoming refinery in Guangdong province, state-controlled Sinopec's main export refinery in south China, as it processed more lighter crude that yielded less bitumen during the period.
