China’s Refinery Runs Crash to Pandemic Lows as Crude Imports Collapse

Chinese refiners further slashed crude processing in June, with volumes crumbling to the pandemic lows of 2020 amid Strait of Hormuz supply disruptions and weakening domestic fuel demand. China’s refinery throughput slumped by 17.7% from a year earlier, to just 12.47 million barrels per day (bpd) in June, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics published on Wednesday. That was the lowest processing volume in six years, since the onset of the Covid pandemic in March 2020, accordi