Overview
China's shipments of refined oil products fell sharply in April, declining 38% from the same month a year earlier to 3.12 million metric tons, according to data released by the General Administration of Customs. The downturn in outbound volumes follows measures introduced in mid-March that limited fuel exports in order to protect domestic supply amid tensions linked to the Iran war.
Export controls and exemptions
Authorities set export allocations for a subset of recipient countries, including Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia and the Philippines. The restrictions did not apply to exports bound for Hong Kong and Macau, and they exempted aviation fuel for international flights as well as bunker sales for international shipping voyages.
Product-level movements
Within the broader decline, jet fuel exports contracted 47.5% in April, falling to 990,000 tons. Diesel shipments dropped 54.8% to 230,000 tons. These product-level figures account for a substantial portion of the overall reduction in refined product exports reported by customs.
Year-to-date totals
Across the first four months of 2026, China exported 15.87 million tons of refined oil products, a 9% decrease versus the same period in 2025, per the customs release. The year-to-date decline reflects the cumulative effect of the export limits and the individual monthly contractions.
LNG imports
Customs data also showed a notable decline in liquefied natural gas imports. LNG arrivals fell to 3.55 million tons in April, the weakest April figure in eight years and a 23% decrease from April 2025. For the first four months of 2026, LNG imports totaled 17.94 million tons, down 10.3% compared with the same period a year earlier.
What the data show
The customs figures portray a simultaneous tightening of refined product exports and a pullback in LNG imports in April. Export allocation rules and the carved-out exemptions are explicitly cited in the data as the policy context for the refined product decline, while the LNG numbers stand out as the lowest April imports in eight years.