China’s changing role as an oil consumer

Economic ill-health may be a wake-up call to the world about the Asian nation’s shifting oil buying status

China’s decades-long role as the main engine driving global crude demand appears to be finally easing, as a deepening slowdown marked by weak consumer confidence and an accelerating energy transition weigh on consumption of oil products that have traditionally lubricated growth in the world’s second-largest economy. Chinese demand contracted in July for a fourth straight month, declining by 280,000b/d compared with an increase of c.1m b/d in the previous 12 months, according to the IEA’s latest estimates. In keeping with the trend of recent months, industrial inputs diesel and naphtha remained lacklustre: diesel use in July declined by 310,000b/d year-on-year, to 3.3m b/d, the lowest level s