July Commercial Crude Inventories Hit Record in Year

Xinhua News Agency released data on the evening of the 23rd, showing that as of the end of July, China's crude oil business inventories increased to 29.2 million tons, an increase of 400,000 tons or 1.4%, and set a record high for the year.

CBI analysts said that this reflects the current domestic refined oil market is still in a basic trend of oversupply. In addition, if we add the existing national crude oil strategic reserve,

At present, domestic crude oil inventories are equivalent to about 2 months of crude oil import or about 40 days of crude oil processing.

Customs data showed that China imported 19 million tons of crude oil in July, a sharp drop of 15% from the previous month. In the previous June, China’s crude oil imports reached a record of 22.27 million tons. Li Li, an analyst at CBI Analyst, said in an interview with reporters that in the face of weak demand for refined oil products, such a large amount of crude oil can only indicate that domestic oil companies still have space in terms of inventory, and can also increase export regulation. Domestic supply and demand balance.

Analysts believe that this high inventory situation is also consistent with the current supply and demand situation in the domestic refined oil market. Wang Xinhua, the chief financial officer of Sinopec, the largest oil product distributor in China, stated in Hong Kong on the 23rd that there is no supply exceeding demand in the domestic refined oil market. In the event of oversupply, the company will adjust its processing volume and exports.

However, market participants do not agree with Wang Xinhua's views on the domestic market. Another analyst from CBI believes that the current low-cost promotion of gas stations in many cities in China is caused by the current weak demand in China. In addition, in the first half of the year, China’s gasoline exports increased by 67.83% year-on-year, and diesel exports increased by 21.98% year-on-year, which is also an illustration of the lack of domestic demand.