U. S. crude oil may not have been on China’s tariff list but regardless, it stopped importing in August, according to BIMCO, a shipowners association.
Oil may not have been on China’s official tariff list, but the country appears to have not imported any U. S. crude U. S. crude oil in August, according to BIMCO’s chief shipping analyst Peter Sand, who cited U. S. Census data.
BIMCO is the world’s largest shipowners association with members in more than 120 countries which control around 65 percent of international tonnage.
According to Sand’s research, Chinese imports accounted for 23 percent of total US crude oil exports in 2017 and was averaging 22 percent for this year, up until August.
“In the first seven months of 2018 China imported an averaged 10.6 million barrels,” explained Sand.
August was “a massive change to the export pattern seen since early 2017. Chinese buyers, led by the world’s top tanker charter Unipec, were rumored to have stayed away and this new data proves it.
