As many as 125 supertankers were traveling to China at the end of April, carrying the biggest volumes of oil to the world’s top crude buyer in more than two years, according to tanker-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg.
Those supertankers have the total capacity to ship 250 million barrels of crude oil to China, as signs suggest that Chinese imports in May and June could be higher than an estimated monthly decline in April.
Crude cargo loadings on tankers bound for China in April were high from the Far East ports in Russia, the U.S. Gulf Coast, Brazil, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the data compiled by Bloomberg showed.
Weaker-than-expected Chinese economic data and an estimated fall in April crude oil imports compared to March have had the oil market concerned that China’s rebound in crude purchases may not be as high as many had expected earlier this year.