China’s base oils demand fell in June for the seventh time in eight months from year-earlier levels, putting pressure on overseas refiners to focus on other markets instead.China’s base oils demand, or output and net imports combined, fell to less than 510,000 tonnes in June, government and industry data showed..The volume slipped from more than 520,000 tonnes in May to the lowest in almost a year.The prolonged fall in base oils demand pointed to a structural dip in requirements at a time when electric vehicles accounted for a growing share of the country’s car sales and total vehicle parc.The fall in demand also suggested that the improvement in China's base oils imports in June was likely to be temporary.China’s base oils imports as a share of demand rose to 24% of the total in June.The share was up from 18% the previous month and 23% in the first quarter of the year.Imports’ higher share in June coincided with plant-maintenance work and run-cuts in China that extended through most of that month.Imports’ share of demand also rose in the month of June from May in each of the previous four years. It then fell back in the month of July from June.A repeat of that trend is likely this year following the restart of several more base oils units in China in recent weeks.A repeat of that trend, combined with slowing outright demand, would curb any sustained pick-up in China’s requirements for supplies from overseas markets.A slowdown in demand would also coincide with a likely rise in Asia’s base oils supply in the third quarter of the year following the completion of a heavy round of plant-maintenance work.The start-up of new base oils production capacity in southeast Asia and India in the coming months is set to add to that supply.Any further drop in China’s base oils imports, combined with rising regional supply, could begin to reverse Asia’s tight supply-demand fundamentals so far this year..China’s June base oils output falls.Asia’s May lube demand falls.S Korea’s June base oils exports rise
