BEIJING, (Reuters) – China’s April processing was 11% lower than a year ago. Daily throughput fell to its lowest level since March 2020 due to refiners cutting operations in response to weaker demand. This is due to widespread COVID-19 locks.

The crude throughput for the month of November was 51.81million tons, which is equal to 12.61million barrels per hour (bpd), according to the National Bureau of Statistics data on Monday.

This compares to 13.8million bpd last March and 14.09million bpd April.

The January-April processing volumes were 3.8% lower than the previous year, at 223.25 millions tonnes or 13.58million bpd.

China has seen a decline in demand for oil products, with the most severe effects being on gasoline and aviation fuel.

Sinopec, a state-owned refiner, began to decrease its capacity from 92.5% the previous year, in order to counter the slowing of fuel sales.

The eastern province of Shandong was home to many independent plants. Many were running at the lowest levels in 2016 and operating at less that half their capacity.

A trading manager at a Shandong-based refiner said that “demand was horrible and margins were very thin so plants had to lose more oil if they processed more.”

China’s April vehicle sales plunged nearly 48% from last year due to COVID-19 lockdowns that hit showrooms and factories. In the largest market for vehicles, sales in 2022’s first four months fell 12% compared to the previous year.

NBS data revealed a 4% rise in crude oil production, to 17. million tonnes (or 4.14 million barrels per day), as the NBS data reflected Beijing’s decision to improve domestic supply security.

Comparable to the previous year, production increased 4.3% in January-April.

In April, natural gas production rose 4.7% to 17.7 Bcm. The year-to date output increased 6.2% relative to the same period in 2021.

Consumers are choosing to buy more domestically produced gas because of the high prices of global gas, particularly spot liquefied.