China's July Crude Imports Rebound 22% But Volume Still Trails Year-Ago Pace
Customs data confirm a demand floor after a near-decade low in June, with Hormuz flows and Russian crude bookings driving the bounce while strategic reserves sit near record capacity.
China's crude oil imports rose 22% in July from June's depressed level to an average of 8.45 million barrels a day, or 35.73 million tons in total, customs data released Friday (2026-08-07) showed, Bloomberg reported. The rebound confirmed a floor under buying that had been absent through most of the second quarter. But the July volume remained well below the pace recorded in the same month a year earlier.5,6
The preceding slump gives the recovery its scale. China, the world's largest crude importer, averaged just 8.1 million barrels a day across the second quarter of 2026, 32% below the first quarter's pace, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported on July 31 (2026-07-31), as disrupted flows through the Strait of Hormuz choked a primary supply channel. June imports specifically hit a near-decade low, Rigzone reported Friday (2026-08-07).4,6
Beijing managed that crunch by drawing on stockpiles built for exactly this purpose. By end-2025, China held an estimated 1.397 billion barrels in inventory — the world's largest, according to EIA estimates — giving it the headroom to cut daily crude purchases by roughly 4.4 million barrels against the 2025 average in June alone.5
State-owned refiners still felt the squeeze. Runs in that sector dropped to multi-year lows earlier this year as the near-halt to Hormuz shipments removed a supply line Chinese processors had long taken for granted.2
July's recovery came on two fronts. Strait of Hormuz flows picked up, and Chinese refiners broadened purchases from suppliers outside the Middle East, Rigzone reported Friday (2026-08-07). Sinopec, China's largest refiner by throughput, had booked 30 to 40 shipments of Russia's Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean crude, equivalent to 241,000 to 320,000 barrels a day, for delivery across July through September, Bloomberg reported.6,5
The EIA flagged a two-way dynamic in its July 31 (2026-07-31) assessment: China's reduced buying through the second quarter had itself softened the upward price pressure from Hormuz supply disruptions, a stabilizing effect that works in reverse as volumes recover toward pre-disruption levels.4
Coal imports also climbed sharply in July, reaching 42.73 million tons, up 20% year-on-year, after a deadly accident in Shanxi province in late May curtailed domestic output and utilities turned to seaborne markets to cover the shortfall, Rigzone reported.6
China's strategic petroleum reserve position tempers the near-term demand outlook. Observable stocks climbed 110 million barrels between early February and recent weeks to reach a record 1.2 billion barrels, according to data firm Kayrros. The country's strategic reserves are already 56% full.1
June Goh, senior analyst at Sparta Commodities, said some incremental crude imports will still flow to reserve-filling regardless of short-term price levels, pointing to Premier Li Qiang's May call for expanded storage capacity as a signal of Beijing's long-term strategic intent.3
Opportunistic reserve-building at scale needs lower prices than the market currently offers. Analysts said large-scale SPR purchases could resume if Brent crude falls below $70 a barrel, well below where the benchmark has been trading as of 2026-08-12.3
Sinopec's current ESPO bookings run through September. Once that cover expires, the next read on Chinese crude demand is whether refiners roll into fresh volumes at similar scale or lean more heavily on a strategic buffer that, at 1.2 billion barrels of observable stock, sits near its highest recorded level.5,1