Russia’s crude shipments rebounded, with China picking up the slack after US President Donald Trump’s punitive tariffs on India choked exports to the South Asian nation.
Trump’s doubling of US import tariffs on goods from India to 50%, imposed as punishment for its persistent buying of Russian oil, appears to be hitting the flow of Moscow’s crude to the nation despite the defiance of the government in New Delhi.
The amount of crude on tankers heading to India stuck below 1.3 million barrels a day in the four-weeks to August 31, down by about one-third from the recent peak seen in March.
Even if all the cargoes on ships yet to show a destination ends up in India, flows would still be down by about 550,000 barrels a day, or 28%, from the March peak.
Meanwhile, the amount of crude heading to China has moved in the opposite direction, reaching a five-month high of 1.28 million barrels a day.
Overall weekly crude shipments from Russian ports jumped by 770,000 barrels a day to a seven-week high of 3.49 million barrels, rebounding from an unusually low level during the previous seven days.
The surge pulled up four-week average crude volumes, with seaborne cargoes averaging 3.15 million barrels a day in the period to August 31, tanker-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg show.
