China imported less crude from top suppliers Saudi Arabia and Russia in March compared to a month earlier, while boosting arrivals from Brazil and the UAE, customs data show.
And the official figures again showed no imports from Iran, despite estimates that as much as 500,000 b/d arrived from the sanctions-hit country. But imports of crude and diluted bitumen from Malaysia — the site of ship-to-ship transfer operations that market participants say are being used to disguise sanctioned crude supplies — rose sharply last month, the customs data show.
Imports from leading supplier Saudi Arabia fell by 5pc from February to 1.85mn b/d in March, but were above year-earlier levels when China was struggling to overcome its Covid-19 outbreak. Saudi's February crude exports fell by 4pc from January to a seven-month low of 5.84mn b/d, as Riyadh set out to implement a 1mn b/d cut below its Opec+ quota.
China's crude imports from Oman and Iraq remained volatile, falling by 21.1pc to 864,000 b/d and by 43.4pc to 856,000 b/d respectively month on month following increases in February.
But Brazilian shipments surged by 33.7pc from a month earlier to 948,000 b/d, making the country China's third-largest supplier behind Saudi Arabia and Russia, which shipped 1.76mn b/d.
Imports from the US were at 321,000 b/d last month, down by 14.7pc from 376,000 b/d in February. Total US exports fell by 14pc in February because of harsh winter weather that disrupted pipeline flows, shut in production and closed ports.
The last recorded imports of Iranian crude were the 122,000 b/d that arrived in December. But large amounts of Iranian supplies continue to reach China through complex ship-to-ship transfer operations in southeast Asia.
The official figures show a big surge in China's imports of Malaysian crude to 445,000 b/d last month, nearly double February's level and up by 79pc from the same period last year. And imports of diluted bitumen from Malaysia rose by 26pc from a month earlier to 1.63mn t in March — which was more than 16 times higher than imports of 102,000t a year earlier.
