The Chinese government's protection of domestic energy prices has its effect.
FOCUS-China's crude imports fall, breaking trend
04:00 a.m. Oct 26, 1998 Eastern
By Azlin Ahmad
SINGAPORE, Oct 26 (Reuters) - China's cumulative
crude imports have fallen for the first time in several
years -- as the country drives to cut its reliance on
imports, analysts said on Monday.
''China has been doing everything in its power to
improve its self-sufficiency both upstream and
downstream in the current year,'' said James Brown,
regional energy analyst for Merrill Lynch.
''I would see this as a result of this initiative,'' he said.
Customs data on Monday showed that China's imports
of crude in the first nine months of the year fell 2.3
percent to 23.5 million tonnes compared with the same
period in 1997.
The data represents the first cumulative decline in crude
imports since 1994 when China turned into a growing
net importer of crude.
It also represents a dramatic turnaround in imports
when compared 57 percent growth in 1997 over 1996.
Analysts, however, said the data was expected as
China has been encouraging local refiners to use more
domestic crude oil.
Kang Wu, a China energy analyst at Hawaii based
East-West Centre, said that China has taken steps to
reduce the attractiveness of foreign crudes to domestic
buyers.
In June, China freed up domestic crude price controls
which Wu said resulted in a fall in the price of local
crudes and brought them closer to international levels.
''Crude imports in China are still more affected by
policies than by the natural markets, but the lower
prices do help,'' Wu said.
infoseek.com:80/Content?arn=a0373LBY627reulb-19981026&qt=china&sv=IS&lk=noframes&col=NX&kt=A&ak=news1486
The Chinese anti-smuggling effort has attention at the highest levels.
China's Zhu Holds Meeting Against Smuggling
12:14 a.m. Oct 26, 1998 Eastern
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Chinese Premier Zhu
Rongji has called for greater efforts against smuggling,
saying the campaign so far has done little to stop
clandestine trade in border and coastal areas, official
newspapers said Monday.
Zhu held an eight-province meeting after touring the
southern province of Guangdong and Guangxi region
with State Council member Wu Yi to assess the
campaign against smugglers and foreign exchange
cheats, the Securities Times said.
infoseek.com:80/Content?arn=a2208LBY500reulb-19981025&qt=china&sv=IS&lk=noframes&col=NX&kt=A&ak=news1486
From an article about oil refining in China.
this year's numbers are likely to be distorted
by China's decision to reduce crude oil imports and a
ban introduced in September on imports of diesel and
gasoline.
infoseek.com:80/Content?arn=a1485LBY935reulb-1998...
If GRNO is able to join in a joint venture in China, its plants could be considered to be domestic oil refiners which the central government wants to protect from foreign product dumping on the Chinese economy. This will protect the product prices from crashing and provide a stable investment value.
Charles |
