CHART OF THE DAY: With a day to go, China's seaborne crude oil imports in September are hovering at just over 7m b/d (down from Aug and Jul, but up from Jun).
The cumulative drop in Chinese buying (vs 2025 average) has now reached 600 million barrels. Even if seaborne oil imports pick up to 8.5m b/d in 4Q, China would import **nearly 1 billion fewer barrels** than it would have done on last year's pace.