China’s imports of crude oil hit a fresh monthly high in November, customs data showed on Saturday, beating the record set in October on heavy buying from private refiners and trial starts of new mega-refineries. Crude oil arrivals last month rose 8.5 percent compared with the same month a year ago to 10.43 million barrels per day (bpd), marking the first time China imported more than 10 million bpd. October’s imports were 9.61 million bpd. For the first 11 months, China imported 418.11 million tonnes of foreign crude oil, or 9.17 million bpd, putting it on track to make this year a record high for imports. Strong demand is being driven in part by new refineries, such as the 400,000 bpd project operated […]