China's crude imports nudge down in June

[HenryTo]

The China Slowdown scenario still stands, IMHO:
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Monday July 11, 10:30 AM

China's crude imports nudge down in June -Xinhua
BEIJING, July 11 (Reuters) - China's imports of crude oil in June slipped slightly to 11.12 million tonnes from 11.27 tonnes in the same period of 2004, data reported by the official Xinhua agency showed.
Imports to the world's second-largest consumer in the first six months of the year had been 63.42 million tonnes, a rise of 3.9 percent from the year-earlier period, Xinhua said, citing customs data.

It did not give figures for June alone, but they could be calculated by deducting earlier data for the five months to May.

The country's import bill for crude and petroleum products in 2005 was likely to exceed $50 billion, compared with $43.2 billion last year, it said, without quoting a source.

China's imports of crude oil were valued at $15.2 billion in the first half of the year, up 42.2 percent, it said.

Oil product imports for the first six months of the year were down 21 percent at 15.70 million tonnes as government caps on domestic retail prices encouraged buyers to avoid soaring global markets.

The cost of those imports still edged up 0.8 percent from a year earlier to $4.5 billion, however.