The combined average run rate at China’s independent refineries in eastern Shandong province continued to edge down to a 6-month low of 60.4% capacity in February, from 65.1% in January, according to a monthly survey by local information provider JLC. Receive daily email alerts, subscriber notes & personalize your experience. Register Now The run rate, which fell for the second consecutive month, was also almost 7% lower than February a year ago. “Refineries are generally obliged to process more throughout the month due to the high inventories of feedstocks, but the weak refining margins have forced some refineries to cut throughputs in early February,” an analyst with JLC said. Refining margins for processing imported crudes, a basket of common grades including Lula, ESPO and Oman, have dropped further in negative territory, to around Yuan 588 ($87.5)/mt, down by Yuan 116/mt theoretically from January, according to JLC. Feedstocks […]