The four major crude oil users, China, Japan, Korea and India started to import more crude oil due to the economic recovery. In the first 5 months, the 4 majors just unloaded 412.5472 million tonnes of crude oil into their tanks & refiners, just 1% down compared with same period of 2020, 3 percent down to 2019.

While Refinitiv estimated 88.1 million tonnes crude oil shipped across the seas worldwide in the first 5 months 2021, a 10 percent down compared with same period of last year, CJIK accounted for 51% of the world total seaborne trade.

Among these, China grew by 2 percent plus to 2020, and 8 percent to that of 2019, India got a slight increase of 1% over 2020. Korea and Japan did not perform well, with 8 or 11 percent down to that of 2020, and sharp decrease of 15% and 21% with same period of 2019 respectively.

Source: Simon Young

The opinions expressed herein are the author's and not necessarily those of The Xinde Marine News.