North China Refined Oil Price Rose over RMB 200/mt on Bullish Crude Market
Recently, the international crude oil prices trended up, mainly because of the two following reasons. First, China and India were active in crude oil procurement, supporting the global crude oil demand to revive, and the inventory of crude oil declined significantly. Secondly, the vaccine of COVID-19 was developed rapidly, and the U.S. stock market kept improving, supporting the overall market sentiment. Therefore, the international crude oil prices were in an uptrend.
In North China, both the prices of gasoline and diesel increased by RMB 100-250/mt recently. On November 19, China’s National Development and Reform Commission raised the retail ceiling prices of gasoline and diesel by RMB 150/mt and RMB 145/mt respectively. Accordingly, many state-owned refineries in North China raised their prices of refined oil as well. However, due to the drop of temperature, the downstream demand for refined oil was tepid. Nonetheless, with the recovery of international crude oil prices, it was predicted that the National Development and Reform Commission would raise the retail ceiling prices of gasoline and diesel further on December 3. Accordingly, the prices of refined oil at state-owned refineries in North China surged recently.
