China Crude Import From Iran Peaks

China's crude imports from Iran are likely to have peaked in August at 874,000 barrels per day ahead of the looming reimposition of US sanctions in November, according to S&P Global Platts' trade tracker cFlow. The last record high was in April 2014, at 803,000 bpd, data from China's General Administration Customs showed. The imports in August included barrels directly shipped to China and a very large crude carrier cargo that offloaded in Myanmar and was reportedly sent via the China-Myanmar pipeline to a refinery in southwest China. The arrivals last month took inflows from Iran over January-August to 304.05 million barrels, 32.2% higher than total Iranian crude imports of 229.99 million barrels in 2017, cFlow data showed. "It is unlikely the inflows will rise further in the rest of the year and the record [volume imported] in August was probably because of Chinese buyers' intention to take as many Iranian barrels as possible ahead of the reimposition of US sanctions in November," a Hong Kong-based analyst said.