China's imports of fuel oil rose 56.6% year on year to 2.34 million mt in September on higher demand from teapot refiners, latest official customs data showed Thursday.

September imports were also up 82.2% from 1.28 million mt in August.

Fuel oil imports -- classified by the customs department as No. 5-7 fuel oil -- from China's top suppliers generally rose across the board.

Russia was China's top supplier once again, with cargoes rising 141.9% year on year to 821,872 mt, while South Korean imports rose 56.4% year on year to 377,258 mt.

Russian M100 is mainly imported as feedstock for independent teapot refiners in Shandong province to produce gasoil and gasoline. They have no crude import licenses and resort to procuring straight-run fuel oil to use as feedstock. The recovery in Russian volumes comes on the back of teapot refiners coming out of maintenance in August and September, one products trader said.

After showing zero imports from Venezuela in August, the Latin American country resumed volumes last month, an increase of 65% year on year to 355,089 mt. China mainly imports Venezuelan 380 CST fuel oil, which is delivered to Zhoushan in northeastern Zhejiang province and Qingdao in Shandong province.

Russian imports averaged $711.67/mt, delivered ex-ship, in September, up from $677.69/mt in September 2011, According to customs data. Venezuelan cargoes averaged $631.46/mt, slightly lower than the $645.34/mt seen a year earlier, while the value of South Korean imports averaged $688.20/mt, largely stable from a year earlier.

Traders attributed the sharp increase in September fuel oil imports to the two domestic retail oil product price increases in August and September, which helped to improve refinery margins for teapot refiners, located mainly in northern Shandong province and southern Guangdong province.

China's National Development and Reform Commission raised diesel prices by about 7.2% on September 11 while gasoline prices were hiked by about 6.6%. They had been increased by about 5% in August.

"The two price hikes stimulated refineries to raise throughput, increasing their buying interest for feedstock, including imported straight-run fuel oil," said one trader.

The utilization rate in Shandong refineries was roughly 46% last month, compared with 30% in August, said another trader based in Shandong.

China continued importing fuel oil from Taiwan for the second month running, with volumes rising 33.6% month on month to 69,372 mt. Taiwan volumes made a rare appearance in August, the first time in at least the last two years.

Fuel oil imports from Singapore fell 23.3% year on year to 310,429 mt but were up 82.3% month on month, while Malaysian volumes also tumbled 16.1% year on year to 122,235 mt but were up 158.1% from August.

In the first nine months of the year, China imported 18.36 million mt of fuel oil, up 1.9% year on year. Total fuel oil imports from Russia during the period rose 30.6% year on year to 5.72 million mt, while Venezuelan imports were up 4.6% to 3.8 million mt.