PRIVATE refiners in China have ramped up their foreign oil buying after returning from prolonged summer maintenance to gear up for rising winter fuel demand, a sign that the financial pain from taxes and higher crude prices have ebbed for now.

The pickup in imports by private refiners, often called “teapots,” has boosted the physical prices of Middle Eastern and Russian oil to their highest in months.

Their return to the market also comes as margins have improved after their extended shutdowns helped drain a glut of diesel and gasoline, boosting domestic fuel prices.

The teapots imported 6 million tons, or 1.4 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude in August, up 40 percent from July and 10 percent higher from the same period last year, Thomson Reuters Oil Research and Forecasts data showed.

Their July purchases were the second-lowest on record for data going back to Oct. 2, 2016, as refiners shut or suspended operations due to a toxic mix of sinking diesel demand, higher crude prices and new tax rules.

The calculation does not include purchases from large private refiners Hengli Petrochemical and Rongsheng Group. The teapots account for about one-fifth of the nearly 9 million bpd of crude oil imported into China, the world’s biggest oil importer.

“Our bookings of heavy crude increased in August and September as we came back from a 20-day-long maintenance in July,” said a manager with a Dongying-based independent refiner who declined to be identified.

“Margins have been negative for a while, but we finally booked profit in August,” he said, adding that higher refined products prices encouraged more refineries to return from maintenance.

Sustained buying from China’s independents will add to global demand.(SD-Agencies)