China’s refining throughput in April came in lower than anticipated, underscoring the sluggish domestic demand trend that began a year ago during the same month, much to the surprise of industry observers. The country’s crude purchases in April were robust, up 7.5% year on year, but the buying was triggered by attractive prices, so the extra barrels were tucked into storage and not processed. China’s runs were 14.37 million barrels per day, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, down 1.4% versus April 2024 and 4.5% versus April 2023.
