The total gasoline and gasoil inventory of independent refineries in Shandong Province rose by 1.5% from two weeks ago to 464,000mt as of Aug 1, C1's research showed.
Gasoil inventory increased by 12.8% or 28,000mt from mid-July to 247,000mt.
Gasoil demand from end-users and speculators were soft in the past two weeks, industry sources remarketed. Additionally, producers were reluctant to cut prices to promote sales as they thought prices were already low, according to the sources.
The inventory of gasoline went down by 8.8% or 21,000mt to 217,000mt.
Gasoil and gasoline sales are not expected to improve much in the near term, if retail ceiling prices stayed unchanged without notable changes in international crude prices, market sources predicted.
C1's research involves 20 independent refineries with annual topping capacities totaling 50.1-mil mt, which accounts for 79.4% of the total refining capacity of independent refineries in Shandong. These refineries have a combined 661,000-mt storage capacity for gasoline and 881,000-mt for gasoil.
