Inbound shipments in April gain 3.2% m/m to 7.96 million b/d Oil imports by China, the world’s biggest consumer after the U.S., rebounded amid strong buying by independent refiners that have helped push the country’s crude demand to a record and overwhelmed one of the country’s biggest ports with tanker traffic. Inbound shipments during April totaled 32.58 million metric tons, data from the Beijing-based General Administration of Customs showed on Sunday. That’s equivalent to 7.96 million barrels a day, up 3.2 percent from the previous month and near a record 8.04 million in February. Net oil-product exports fell 10 percent from March to 1.17 million tons. Crude imports have been driven by smaller refining companies that operate independently of the country’s state-owned energy giants and have been empowered in the past year to import their own supplies. Increased purchases by these processors, known as teapots, caused a backup of […]