London — Angola, a key provider of oil to China, has suffered its slowest trading month in 2019 as poor refining margins, high freight rates and subdued demand amid the trade war between Beijing and Washington curbed its sales.
China typically purchases about two-thirds of Angolan barrels each month, making Africa’s second-biggest oil exporter an important barometer of the Chinese market. Crude purchases, especially among Chinese independent refineries, slowed down, East Asian market sources said, as they continued to digest inventories purchased in previous months.
“The global economy and trade issues are a bit macro for us,” one Chinese buyer said, noting July purchases closer to home than Angola, such as from Gulf producers. But anything signalling lower growth and demand, none of this geopolitical stuff is good.” More worrying for sellers, China repeatedly sought to sell West African cargoes it was assigned through long-standing agreements with producers via the publicly visible Platts Window instead of shipping them home. But it attracted little enthusiasm.