DDespite the turmoil of the past two months, China’s crude oil imports are up so far in 2026. In its latest weekly report, shipbroker Panchero Costa said that “after a marginal decline in 2024, when global crude oil shipments fell by -0.2% y/y, things have rebounded in 2025, with full-year volumes up +1.8% y/y. In the January-April 2026 period, with Global crude oil shipments fell -3.3% year-on-year to 690.1 million tons, excluding all coastal trade, according to ship tracking data from LSEG. Exports from the Arabian Gulf fell -23.6% year-on-year to 218.8 million tons in the January-April 2026 period, and accounted for 31.7% of global seaborne crude oil trade, down sharply from the historical norm of about 40%, reflecting a decline. Exports from Russian ports (including oil of Kazakh origin) rose by -1.5% y/y to 73.8 million tons in January-April 2026, or 10.7% of global trade, exports from South America rose +29.1% y/y to 89.8 million tons and from the United States exports increased by +8.9% y/y to 66.4 million tons in January-April. 2026. From West Africa, exports fell -8.0% y/y to 52.5 million tons and ASEAN exports jumped +30.9% y/y to 42.7 million tons in January-April 2026 (this inevitably includes Iranian and Russian shipments).
Source: Banchero Costa
According to Panchero Costa, “In terms of demand (measured by access to ports of discharge), mainland China was the largest sea importer of crude oil in January-April 2026, accounting for 23.1% of global trade. Volumes into China increased marginally by +1.0% year-on-year to 161.5 million tonnes in January-April 2026, from 159.9 million tonnes January-April 2025. Imports to the EU27 rose +2.0% y/y to 150.6 million tons, accounting for 21.6% of global trade. As for ASEAN, imports fell -7.9% y/y to 85.0 million tons and imports to India fell -2.9% y/y to 79.0 million tons in January-April. 2026. As for South Korea, imports decreased by -15.6% year-on-year to 37.0 million tons. Imports to Japan decreased by -26.6% year-on-year to 28.5 million tons in the period from January to April 2026. Imports to the United States increased by +22.1% year-on-year to 43.3 million tons in the period from January to April 2026.
“Mainland China is currently the world’s largest importer of crude oil, with a share of 23.1%, again ahead of the EU’s share of 19.3%. In January-December 2025, imports to China marginally decreased by -0.3% year-on-year to 506.5 million tons. In January-April 2026, crude oil import volumes to China rose marginally by +1.0% year-on-year to 161.5 million tons. About 77.2 percent of the volumes unloaded in China in the period from January to April 2026 were transported in VLCCs, about 5.3 percent were transported in the Suez Max tankers, and 16.8 percent in the Aframax tankers, Lanshan (14.3), Dalian (10.1), Beilun (9.2), and Qingdao. (8.2), Zhoushan (7.8), Tianjin (7.1), Huizhou (6.7), Zhanjiang (6.6), Longkou (6.4), Yangpu (5.7), Yantai (5.7), Sizi (5.5), Xuedong (5.2), Quanzhou (5.0).” Said the shipbroker.
Source: Banchero Costa
“In terms of shipment sources, much of China’s oil imports come from the Middle East. In January-April 2026, Russia overtook Saudi Arabia as China’s largest single exporter, accounting for 12.9% of volumes, narrowly ahead of Saudi Arabia at 12.8%. In January-April 2026, China imported 20.7 million tons of crude oil from Saudi Arabia, down -17.3% on a basis Year on year. In the same period last year, imports from Iraq to China decreased by -39.9% year on year to 12.7 million tons, and from Kuwait by -59.0% year on year to 2.0 million tons. Direct shipments from the UAE to China decreased by -21.5% year on year to 7.5 million tons, and from Oman by +10.0% year on year to 12.2 million tons. Imports from ASEAN (which includes some… Shipments of Iranian and Russian oil) increased by +3.5% year-on-year to 19.6 million tons in the period from January to April 2026, and from West Africa decreased by -6.6% year-on-year to 15.9 million tons. “In January and April 2026 from 2.9 million tons in the same period of January-April 2025,” concluded Panchero Costa.
Nikos Rousanoglou, Global Hellenic Shipping News
