Bad omens for Chinese oil demand

Sino-US trade tensions could see crude consumption crumble despite recent buying behaviour

The US-China trade decoupling and its impact on the growth of the world’s second-largest economy have quickly become the main wildcard for Chinese crude oil demand this year—leapfrogging existing drivers such as electric cars and petrochemicals—as sky-high US tariffs seem certain to crimp China’s manufacturing and exports. The years-long trade war between the US and China reached new heights in April, as both sides escalated tariffs and counter-tariffs that now risk collapsing bilateral trade worth an estimated $582b last year. Beijing has stood firm in the spat, striking a publicly defiant tone that extended to forcefully denying US President Donald Trump’s claims that tariff negotiations b