China's exports of fuel oil, mainly for low-sulphur marine fuel bunkering, rose 42 per cent year-on-year in May, customs data showed on Saturday.
Volumes totalled 1.76 million tonnes, or about 360,695 barrels per day (bpd), up four per cent from April, according to General Administration of Customs data.
Some marine fuel demand had been diverted from regional hub Singapore to China's Zhoushan due to cheaper prices at Chinese ports during most of May, market sources said.
Fuel oil imports in May extended declines after plummeting last month to what was then the lowest level since customs data for them began in 2021.
Imports of fuel oil totalled 559,346 tonnes in May, down 43 per cent from April and 57 per cent from a year earlier.
The imports, mostly purchased by refineries for use as feedstock, remained capped this quarter as China's independent refineries trimmed runs amid weak domestic demand for products, market sources said.
(Reporting by Sam Li in Beijing and Jeslyn Lerh in Singapore; Editing by William Mallard)