(Bloomberg) -- China’s outbound gasoline shipments soared to the second highest on record in January as refiners exhausted fresh export quotas with surging supplies from plants being upgraded to produce higher standard fuel.
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- Gasoline shipments rose 52 percent from a year earlier to 409,419 barrels a day in January, according to Bloomberg calculations based on data from the General Administration of Customs.
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Key Insights
- Gasoline exports rose as refiners took advantage of the higher export quotas issued at the start of the year, and as trade picked up ahead of a lull in the Lunar New Year holidays in February when industrial activity slows, according to Sophie Shi, Beijing-based analyst at IHS Markit.
- Shipments also rose as refiners raised runs to produce gasoline and diesel that met government-enforced China VI specifications, the country’s highest fuel standard. That left more supplies available for export.
- Oil blenders were squeezed out of the market as new fuel standards pushed out off-spec products, leaving room for refiners to raise runs.
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- Rising gasoline shipments from China may further weaken Singapore benchmark gasoline cracks, according to IHS’s Shi
- China’s diesel exports rose 43 percent from a year earlier to 442,787 barrels a day in January, according to Bloomberg calculations based on today’s data
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