(Reuters) -China’s imports of crude oil from Russia fell 12.9% in April from a year earlier, coming in at 8.07 million metric tons or 1.96 million barrels per day, Chinese customs data showed on Tuesday.
Russian supply to China also declined 5.8% on a monthly basis, down from 2.08 million bpd in March.
Imports from Malaysia, the top trans-shipment hub for sanctioned Iranian oil, stood at 7.95 million tons in April, or 1.93 million bpd, down 6.3% from March, but up 96.9% year-on-year.
China’s total crude oil imports stood at 48.06 million tons in April, or 11.69 million bpd, lower from March but up 7.5% from a year earlier due to abundant deliveries of sanctioned shipments and as state refiners built stocks during maintenance shutdowns.
Imports from Saudi Arabia, the third-largest supplier, were down 12.8% year-on-year in April, at 5.53 million tons or 1.35 million bpd.
Customs recorded no imports from Iran and Venezuela in April.
Below are the details of imports from key suppliers, volume in million metric tons.
Country April April yr/yr pct
2025 2024 change
Russia 8.07 9.26 -12.9
Malaysia 7.95 4.04 96.8
Saudi Arabia 5.53 6.34 -12.8
Iraq 4.59 5.54 -17.1
Brazil 3.69 3.66 0.82
United Arab Emirates 3.14 2.85 10.2
Angola 2.89 2.35 23.0
Oman 2.73 3.82 -28.5
Kuwait 1.71 1.47 16.3
United States 0.53 0.53 0
Indonesia 0.05 0
(1 metric ton = 7.3 barrels for crude oil conversion)
(Reporting by Sam Li and Lewis Jackson; Editing by Varun H K)
