MOSCOW (MRC) -- The oil market is largely convinced that a strong recovery in demand is imminent, based on the view that the world is recovering from the coronavirus pandemic and economies are rebounding. Asia may be a late arrival to the impending crude oil party, reported Reuters.
Although this may be true for North America and Europe, the top oil-consuming region of Asia is looking somewhat less optimistic, with crude demand in top importers China and India presenting a mixed outlook.
China, the world's biggest crude buyer, looks set for another month of modest imports in May, as several refineries undergo scheduled maintenance.
India, Asia's second-biggest importer, also is on track to record a soft May import number, even before the impact of the current coronavirus wave on demand shows up in monthly purchases.
While these are both likely temporary factors, it does signal that the pick-up in Asia's crude oil demand may not be as rapid as what most analysts are expecting for the rest of the major consuming regions.
As MRC informed earlier, China's crude oil imports fell 3% from January to June versus a year earlier, in the first first-half contraction since 2013, as an import quota shortage, refinery maintenance and rising global prices curbed buying. Imports totalled 40.14 million tonnes last month, data released by the General Administration of Customs showed on Tuesday, equivalent to 9.77 million barrels per day (bpd).
Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 953,400 tonnes in the first five months of 2021, which virtually corresponded to the same figure a year earlier. High denisty polyethylene (HDPE) shipments decreased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 607,8900 tonnes in January-May 2021, up by 33% year on year. Shipments of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased, whereas deliveries of PP random copolymers decreased.
MRC