China Boosts Oil Imports to Record on Falling Prices

By Winnie Zhu and Wang Ying

Oct. 13 (Bloomberg) -- China, the world's second-largest energy user, increased crude-oil imports to a record last month, taking advantage of falling prices, as domestic refining capacity climbed.

Crude imports surged 46 percent to 20 million metric tons or 4.87 million barrels a day in September from a year earlier, according to Bloomberg's calculations based on figures provided by the Beijing-based Customs General Administration of China on its Web site today. August purchases were 15.65 million tons.

Crude oil prices have fallen 45 percent from a record $147.27 a barrel reached on July 11 because of concerns the global credit crisis will damp economic growth and oil demand. China's processing capacity climbed in the third quarter as the nation's two biggest oil companies expanded refining capacity in Qingdao and Dalian.

``China aims to take advantage of cheaper crude prices to boost home stockpiles after it slashed imports in the previous months because of the high cost of oil,'' Gong Jinshuang, an oil analyst with China National Petroleum Corp., the nation's second-biggest oil refiner, said by telephone in Beijing today.

China National doubled the capacity of a plant in the northern province of Dalian to 20.5 million tons in August while China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., the nation's biggest refiner, started operating its Qingdao refinery in July. China National's Dushanzi plant in Xinjiang is scheduled to start operating within the year.

China cut crude purchases by 7 percent, the biggest decline in at least two years, to 13.79 million tons in July.

Imports between January and September rose 8.8 percent to 140 million tons, according to today's data. The average oil import price surged 71 percent to $779 per ton.

Fuel imports rose 16.5 percent to 31.28 million tons in the nine month period, the customs said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Winnie Zhu in Shanghai at wzhu4@bloomberg.netWang Ying in Beijing at wang30@bloomberg.net.