While China’s overall oil demand still appears stable, its composition is shifting gears rapidly. Gasoline and diesel demand seems to have peaked: China’s total demand for these transportation fuels in 2024 will be 3.6% lower than in 2021, according to IEA estimates.
China’s housing bust is partly to blame, as a slowdown in construction led to weaker demand for diesel used in machinery.
But a bigger story comes from China’s rapid shift in personal transportation, and especially the rise of electric vehicles. More than half of the passenger cars sold in the country in recent months were new-energy vehicles, which includes plug-in hybrids, according to the China Passenger Car Association. Largely because of that trend, China’s gasoline demand in 2025 is expected to be 6.4% lower than the peak in 2021, according to IEA projections.
While China’s overall oil demand still appears stable, its composition is shifting gears rapidly. Gasoline and diesel demand seems to have peaked: China’s total demand for these transportation fuels in 2024 will be 3.6% lower than in 2021, according to IEA estimates.
China’s housing bust is partly to blame, as a slowdown in construction led to weaker demand for diesel used in machinery.
But a bigger story comes from China’s rapid shift in personal transportation, and especially the rise of electric vehicles. More than half of the passenger cars sold in the country in recent months were new-energy vehicles, which includes plug-in hybrids, according to the China Passenger Car Association. Largely because of that trend, China’s gasoline demand in 2025 is expected to be 6.4% lower than the peak in 2021, according to IEA projections.
The picture was mixed overseas. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 1.6%, under pressure from U.S. regulatory scrutiny on New York-listed Chinese companies. Stocks were more buoyant in Europe, where Frankfurt’s DAX surged 1.4%. Two days after Russia invaded Ukraine, an account on the Telegram messaging platform posing as President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged his armed forces to surrender. Markets continued to grapple with the economic and corporate earnings implications relating to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. “We have a ton of uncertainty right now,” said Stephanie Link, chief investment strategist and portfolio manager at Hightower Advisors. “We’re dealing with a war, we’re dealing with inflation. We don’t know what it means to earnings.” The message was not authentic, with the real Zelenskiy soon denying the claim on his official Telegram channel, but the incident highlighted a major problem: disinformation quickly spreads unchecked on the encrypted app. WhatsApp, a rival messaging platform, introduced some measures to counter disinformation when Covid-19 was first sweeping the world.
from sa
