Iraq overtook Angola and Russia to become China’s second-largest oil supplier in January as imports from the Middle Eastern country rose to a record. Inbound shipments from Iraq jumped 44 percent to 3.4 million metric tons, or 803,000 barrels a day, data from the Beijing-based General Administration of Customs showed Friday. That’s the highest in records going back to May 2008, and made the nation the largest supplier after Saudi Arabia, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. China is benefiting from record discounts offered by crude producers as they compete for market share amid a global oversupply. Oil demand in the world’s largest energy user is forecast to be steady, and additional purchases from one country will be at the expense of another, said Gao Jian, an analyst at consultancy SCI International in Shandong, China. “China’s strategy is simply to buy oil from wherever it’s available and […]