China’s Unipec is reselling some of the crude oil it imports from the United States to buyers in India and South Korea to avoid tariffs Beijing imposed in its trade war with the US, said Reuters.
Unipec, the trading arm of Asia’s top refiner China Petroleum & Chemical Corp (Sinopec) is China’s main buyer of US crude, but its imports have been disrupted after Beijing placed a 5% tariff on US crude imports from Sept. 1.
To mitigate losses from the tariffs, the company has also sought waivers from Beijing for its US crude oil imports in September and October, Reuters reported last month.
Unipec, which usually imports 6 million barrels of US crude such as West Texas Intermediate (WTI) Midland crude to China per month, is reducing imports to around 2 million barrels on average each month for September and October when the tariffs start, said a Reuters sources.
