Crude oil imports for China’s independent refineries in January eased 8.7% month on month to 11.52 million mt, or 2.72 million b/d, a monthly survey by S&P Global Platts showed Friday. Receive daily email alerts, subscriber notes & personalize your experience. Register Now It represented a sharp year-on-year increase of 27.7%, which was higher than market expectations, but down from the historical high of 12.6 million mt in December. The relatively strong imports in January mainly stemmed from logistical constraints, as several vessels scheduled for second-half December delivery were held up in long vessel queues and could only discharge their cargoes in January. “We were unable to discharge all December deliveries until mid-January,” a source with Qingdao port said. Customs declarations for about half of the January imports through the ports were made using import quotas allocated in 2018, according to the source. Quota holders typically need […]