China's crude oil imports highest since August 2023 on Iranian surge

China's crude oil imports in March rebounded sharply from the previous two months and also rose nearly 5% from a year earlier, data showed on Monday, owing to a surge in Iranian oil and a rebound in Russian oil deliveries.

March imports totalled 51.41 million metric tons, according to the General Administration of Customs, equivalent to 12.1 million barrels per day, the highest since August 2023, according to Reuters' records of customs data.

That is up from 11.55 million bpd in March 2024 and 10.38 million bpd for the January-February period.

Arrivals of Iranian oil, which makes up about 13% of Chinese total crude oil buys, surged in March as independent refiners and traders stocked up in anticipation of further U.S. measures tightening future supplies.

Emma Li, an analyst at tanker analytics firm Vortexa, said her company's tanker tracking showed China's seaborne crude imports rebounded to 10.6 million bpd, the highest since October 2023, driven largely by record Iranian crude arrivals into the Shandong region.

Overall, Russian oil deliveries rebounded despite Washington's toughest-ever sanctions on Moscow's oil exports announced in January, as non-sanctioned tankers joined the transport taking advantage of surging freight rates.

State refiners, which have curbed purchases of Russian seaborne oil since March, have stepped up buying of alternative supplies from the Middle East, West Africa and South America to compensate.

For the first quarter as a whole, crude oil imports stood at 135.25 million tons, or 10.97 million bpd, was 1.5% lower compared with a year ago, the data showed.