China’s oil product exports increased to the level of between 68 % to 77 % in November, compared to the previous month, over a bleak domestic demand for refined products, Platts and Bloomberg reported citing the Beijing-based General Administration of Customs’ data.

China’s crude imports rose up to 7.6 % year on year. The rising trend in crude purchases is not solely a result of strategic stockpiling, Reuters reports, rather indicates an increasing importance of refined products exports from China.

The dynamics is ascribed to the growing liberalization of the Chinese energy market, which allows smaller refineries to buy their own crude, and have access to fuel export quotas.

In addition, the Financial Times reported that the Chinese manufacturing, and construction sector is in decline, hence imports of iron ore, copper, and basic construction materials are falling.