China’s apparent oil demand rose 5.3% year on year in the first two months of 2017 to 11.65 million b/d on the back of robust economic growth, holiday transportation demand and efforts to build stocks ahead of the refinery maintenance season that started in March. Oil products across the barrel witnessed year-on-year demand growth over January-February, with LPG witnessing strongest growth of 24.8%, while gasoil demand rose 0.4%, rebounding from year-on-year declines since December 2015. China’s industrial production grew 6.3% on year over January-February, beating expectations of 6.2% and accelerating from 6% in December. Fixed asset investment grew 8.9% in the two-month period, accelerating from 8.1% in December, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics. These factors helped to lift gasoil consumption in the transportation and construction sectors. The week-long Chinese New Year holidays also pushed up demand for transportation fuels gasoline and jet fuel. A significant […]