China's December crude imports from UAE, Brazil, Canada hit record highs

BEIJING, Jan 20 (Reuters) -

• China's crude oil imports from top supplier Russia fell 0.7% year-on-year in December to 9.33 million metric tons, or 2.2 million barrels per day, but hit the highest level for 2025.

• Imports from Malaysia, the largest trans-shipment hub for sanctioned Iranian oil, fell 37.9% to 4.14 million tons, or 0.97 million bpd.

• Imports from Indonesia stood at 2.19 million tons, or 0.52 million bpd, last month, down 13% from 2.52 million tons in November. China imported around 0.1 million tons of crude from Indonesia for the whole of 2024.

• Reuters previously reported that the surge in imports from Indonesia pointed to a way of masking shipments of sanctioned Iranian crude trans-shipped in waters off Malaysia.

• Imports from the UAE surged 116.4% year-on-year in December to 6.1 million tons, or 1.44 million bpd, reaching the highest single-month import volume on record.

• Imports from Brazil surged 109.6% to 5.4 million tons, or 1.27 million bpd, reaching a record high.

• Imports from the United States have remained at zero since May 2025.

• There were no reported imports from Iran or Venezuela in December.

• Imports from Canada surged to 2.33 million tons, or 0.55 million bpd, in December, up 49% from November and 104.5% year-on-year, hitting a record high.

Below are details of imports from China's biggest suppliers, with volumes in millions of metric tons.

(1 metric ton = 7.3 barrels)