China imports significantly more (Iranian) Oil from Malaysia – Commerzbank

China published detailed data on crude Oil imports in June on Monday. Of the total 49.9 million tons, Russia accounted for 8.35 million tons and Saudi Arabia for 7.9 million tons, Commerzbank's commodity analyst Carsten Fritsch notes.

Russia remained China's most important Oil supplier

"While deliveries from Russia were marginally below the previous month's level, imports from Saudi Arabia increased by 45%. The sharp rise in Chinese Oil imports from Malaysia was also striking. These rose by 40% to 7.1 million tons. This corresponds to a daily volume of 1.73 million barrels, which puts Malaysia in third place among China's most important Oil suppliers. Based on OPEC data, Malaysia's Oil production is only around 350,000 barrels per day."

"The significantly higher exports are probably due to Malaysia's role as a transshipment point for sanctioned Oil from Iran and Venezuela. Officially, China did not import any Oil from Iran or Venezuela in June. The same applies to Oil imports from the US, albeit for different reasons. Tariffs have made Oil imports from the US too expensive for Chinese refineries."

"In the first half of the year as a whole, China's Oil imports from Russia were 11% below the previous year's level. Nevertheless, Russia remained China's most important Oil supplier. Saudi Arabia ranked second, closely followed by Malaysia. While Oil imports from Saudi Arabia fell by 3.5% compared with the same period last year, imports from Malaysia rose by more than 30%. This demonstrates Iran's growing importance as an Oil supplier to China, despite the tightening of US sanctions since the beginning of the year."