China#39;s oil imports from Russia jump 55% on-year

China#39;s oil imports from Russia jump 55% on-year

The world's second-biggest economy imported around 8.42 million tonnes of oil from Russia last month, as Beijing continued to refuse to condemn Moscow's war.







Reuters









June 20, 2022 / 02:29 PM IST





China's imports of oil from Russia in May rose 55 percent year on year, customs data showed on Monday, with the West sanctioning fuel imports from Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.

The world's second-biggest economy imported around 8.42 million tonnes of oil from Russia last month, as Beijing continued to refuse to condemn Moscow's war.

The latest number was a spike from the 5.44 million tonnes China imported in May 2021, according to figures from the Customs Administration, helping Russia to overtake Saudi Arabia as China's main source of oil.

In May, China imported 7.82 million tonnes of oil from Saudi Arabia.

The new customs data comes four months into the war in Ukraine, with other buyers avoiding Russian energy imports.

Although demand in China remains muted, there has been some improvement in the past month as cities began to loosen virus restrictions after the country's worst Covid outbreak since the early days of the pandemic.

This has allowed some supply chain problems