finance
Chinese Refinery Throughput Falls in June as Run Rates Drop Below 60 Percent
Refinery runs in China dropped sharply in June amid reduced crude imports and weak domestic demand. Throughput reached 12.47 million barrels per day, the lowest since the start of the Covid pandemic. OilPrice.com reported the figures from official data.
Jul 15, 2:40 AM·1m read2 sources
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Chinese refinery throughput fell to 12.47 million barrels per day in June 2026, down 17.7 percent from the same month a year earlier. The National Bureau of Statistics data showed the volume was the lowest since March 2020. May throughput totaled 53.72 million tons, a 9.1 percent decline from a year earlier, with an average run rate of 66.3 percent.
June volumes slipped further to 51.24 million tons, for an average run rate below 60 percent. Utilization reached 57.72 percent in June, down 3.28 percentage points from May, according to Oilchem data cited by OilPrice.com. The declines followed the lowest Chinese crude oil imports in a decade.
Imports totaled 29.27 million tons, or 7.3 percent drop from June 2025. The figure marked the lowest level since October 2016, per Chinese customs data. OilPrice.com reported that reduced flows through the Strait of Hormuz raised input prices while domestic fuel demand remained weak, prompting refiners to increase maintenance and cut processing rates.
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CorroborationModerate · 2 sources
