Does rebounded oil demand lift China's economy?

China's crude oil imports and throughput in November showed recovery from the sluggish movements over the past few months. Does it mean steady economic growth in China?

According to the Chinese government, the country's crude oil processing rose 3.2% on year to 37.87 million tonnes in November. The daily crude oil processing volume posted the highest level for the first time since December 2010.

Crude oil imports also rose 9.1% on year to 22.69 million tonnes in November. The largest year-on-year increase in this year lifted the import volume to the highest level since September 2010.

Meanwhile, China's automobile production and ethylene output in November rebounded sharply from the slump over the July-September period.
But the November car production was 1.3% lower than the same period a year earlier and the growth of ethylene output stayed at only 1.9% on year.

These numbers were improved from the previous quarter, but the growth of industrial activities was not strong enough.

The following chart shows the trend of year-on-year growth of Chinese industrial indications.
The growth rates improved in 2009, peaked out in 2010 and are fading this year.

The recovery of crude oil throughput in November was not enough to cease the downtrend of the growth rate. The year-on-year growth rate of electric power generation in China has stayed below 10% in the past two months.

The growth of energy demand under the downtrend may be reflecting the slowdown of economic growth in the country.