Onshore Chinese crude inventories dropped significantly at the end of July, falling nearly 30 Mbbls over the two weeks through 6 August according to Kpler.

• This drop coincided with a pop in floating storage and a corresponding drop in crude imports at the end of July into August.
• The slowdown was seemingly related to hurricane-level storms hitting China according to Kpler.
• Chinese crude imports have since rebounded, now at a record so far this month, and correspondingly Kpler has seen onshore inventories rebound by 13 Mbbls in the last two weeks.
• Markets are weighing up whether China will keep pulling in strong imports while prices are high and at what point they start dipping more heavily into bulging stockpiles largely bought at much cheaper prices.

source: Kpler