China’s Bitumen imports up sharply in Apr on lower import price

Affected by lower import prices, China’s bitumen import volume raised 23.6% month on month (MoM) and reached 365,000 tons in April. Information received from General Administration of Customs of China (GACC) shows that bitumen import volume amounted 1.21 million tones over January-April, a year-on-year increase of 10.8%.

South Korea, importing 124,000 tons in April remained the top one supplier for China, up 10% from last month and down 30% from last year. While UAE ranked the second, with 94,000 tons, showing the increase of 38.4% and 194% respectively MoM and YoY.
GACC report also indicates that import volume from Singapore also experienced sharp rise, with 94,000 tons, 124.6% MoM and 5.8% YoY up.

OilChem’s data showed that in China domestic market, dragged down by poor profits, domestic bitumen production was cut by 3.9% over month to 2.29 million tons in Aprl.
Bitumen imports growth alongside with the sagged demand, the bitumen inventory got high which “put a cap on price appreciation of bitumen”.

OilChem believes that High inventory & coming less demand, will result in “bitumen imports fall to about 240,000-260,000 tons in May”.