According to market sources, in July 2021, China's bunker fuel oil import volume was 520,400 tons, down 14.79% from the previous month and down 7.15% compared with the same period of the previous year.

In July, with the restart of refineries after maintenance and reasonable margins for low sulfur fuel oil, refineries actively produced low sulfur fuel oil, and the supply of domestic low sulfur fuel oil increased steadily. At the same time, affected by severe weather such as typhoon, port operations in East China decreased and inventory pressure bonded warehouses for fuel oil increased significantly. This dampened buying interest from local bunker fuel oil dealers for imported fuel oil and import volumes fell in July.

In August, low sulfur fuel oil output of domestic refineries decreased slightly, while demand for bunker fuel oil remained basically stable. However, demand is expected to increase in September, and dealers focused on securing enough inventories in advance. Therefore, the import volume of bunker fuel oil might rise slightly in August.