China has cut export quotas for refined fuels by 73% year-on-year in the second issue for 2021, as new taxes on imports of key blending fuels are set to boost sales of domestically refined fuels.
The latest batch of quotas, totalling 7.5 million tonnes, were issued to seven firms, including a private refiner, according to two people familiar with the matter.
That was sharply down from 28 million tonnes in the second batch a year earlier and 27.99 million tonnes in the first batch for 2021.
The quota issues did not give the breakdowns by products, which normally cover diesel, gasoline and aviation fuel.
Beijing also separately issued 3 million tonnes of low-sulphur marine fuel export quotas in the second batch, down from 5 million tonnes in first release for 2021.
China started levying hefty taxes on imports of light cycle oil (LCO), mixed aromatics and diluted bitumen from June 12, to curb imports that it blames for worsening a fuel surplus and polluting the environment.
Beijing normally issues several batches of fuel export quotas during a year. For 2020, it allotted quotas totalling nearly 59 million tonnes.
The recipients of the latest issues are CNPC, Sinopec, CNOOC, Sinochem, China National Aviation Oil Company, defence conglomerate Norinco and private refiner Zhejiang Petrochemical Corp (ZPC), sources said.
The Ministry of Commerce, which is in charge of the quota releasing, did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Chen Aizhu and Florence Tan in Singapore, Muyu Xu in Beijing, Editing by Louise Heavens and Tomasz Janowski)