MOSCOW (MRC) -- India's crude oil imports in June fell to their lowest in nine months, as refiners curtailed purchases amid higher fuel inventories due to low consumption and renewed coronavirus lockdowns in the previous two months, reported Reuters.
India, the world's third-biggest oil importer and consumer, shipped in about 3.9 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude last month, about 7% down from May, but 22% higher from year-ago levels, tanker arrival data obtained from trade sources showed.
India is the second major importer in Asia, after China, to post a slump in last month's crude imports.
After an uptick in India's fuel demand in February and March, the country's refiners cranked up crude processing and oil imports, said an Indian refining official who declined to be named as he is not authorised to speak to media. However, fuel demand fell sharply in April and May after the government imposed restrictions to curb a second wave of coronavirus, leaving refiners with high fuel inventories.
India's crude imports between April and June, however, rose 11.7% year-on-year to 4.1 million bpd as the lockdown curbs were not as severe as last year when COVID-19 first hit the nation, according to the data.
Last month, Iraq stayed as the top oil supplier to India, followed by Saudi Arabia. The United Arab Emirates climbed four notches to emerge as third-biggest supplier while Nigeria rose to No.4 from No.5 in May. The United States was at No.5, followed by Canada. The share of oil from the Middle East in India's imports rose to about 59% in June from 53% in the prior month, while that of other regions declined, data showed.
As MRC informed earlier, China's crude oil imports fell 3% from January to June versus a year earlier, in the first first-half contraction since 2013, as an import quota shortage, refinery maintenance and rising global prices curbed buying. Imports totalled 40.14 million tonnes last month, data released by the General Administration of Customs showed last Tuesday, equivalent to 9.77 million barrels per day (bpd).
We remind that Indian refiners, anticipating a lifting of US sanctions, plan to make space for the resumption of Iranian imports by reducing spot crude oil purchases in the second half of the year. The world"s third-largest oil consumer and importer halted imports from Tehran in 2019 after former US President Donald Trump withdrew from a 2015 accord and re-imposed sanctions on the OPEC producer over its disputed nuclear programme.
Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 953,400 tonnes in the first five months of 2021, which virtually corresponded to the same figure a year earlier. High denisty polyethylene (HDPE) shipments decreased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 607,8900 tonnes in January-May 2021, up by 33% year on year. Shipments of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased, whereas deliveries of PP random copolymers decreased.
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