China’s General Administration of Customs said the country imported 47.2 million tonnes of crude oil in July, an 11.5% increase from a year earlier but 5.4% below June’s near-two-year high. The volume equals roughly 11.12 million barrels a day, indicating sustained refinery runs even as independent plants slowed purchases after heavy buying the previous month. Outbound shipments of refined fuels climbed 7.2% year-on-year to 5.34 million tonnes, while natural-gas inflows, including pipeline gas and LNG, slipped 2.1% to 10.63 million tonnes. Consultancy Oilchem put national refinery utilisation at 71.8%, up one percentage point from June as several state-owned plants returned from maintenance. Metals demand also firmed. Imports of unwrought copper and copper products rose 9% on the year to 480,000 tonnes, and copper-concentrate deliveries advanced 18% to 2.56 million tonnes amid smelter expansions. Iron-ore arrivals totalled 104.6 million tonnes, maintaining the country’s dominant pull on seaborne supply. In agriculture, soybean purchases hit a record for the month at 11.67 million tonnes, up 18.5% from July 2024, lifting cumulative January-to-July imports to 61.04 million tonnes. Steel-product exports were reported at 9.84 million tonnes.