As other nations reject Russian goods due to their invasion of Ukraine, Bloomberg reported on Monday that China is continuing to bolster Russia’s war reserve through escalating purchases of energy supplies.
According to Bloomberg, who cited the most recent Chinese customs data, between March and July, China paid $35 billion on Russian oil, gas, and coal as opposed to $20 billion at the same period previous year.
China spent $7.2 billion for Russian energy in July alone, up from $4.7 billion in July 2021.
Both the global spike in energy costs brought on by the invasion of Ukraine and China’s increased imports of Russian resources, often at reduced prices, are blamed for the increase. Western oil majors’ and trading houses’ informal boycotts over the Ukraine invasion have also created steep discounts for Russian oil.
Bloomberg cites data that claims that in the first 100 days of the conflict in Ukraine, between February 24 and June 3, Russia likely generated a record $97 billion in revenue from the sale of fossil fuels.
Russia eclipsed Indonesia as China’s biggest coal supplier between March and July, according to statistics from Chinese customs that was reported, with an increase of 14% year over year to a record 7.4 million tons.
According to Bloomberg, the amount of Russian coking coal used in China’s steel sector increased by 63% to 2 million tons.
Although they decreased to roughly 410,000 tons compared to June 2022, natural liquefied gas shipments were 20% greater in July 2021 than in July 2021.
Despite dropping to 7.15 million tons from June 2022, crude oil imports increased by 8% annually.
Russian exports to China of wheat, aluminum, and palladium increased by 16% to 52% in volume. Meanwhile, imports of refined copper and nickel decreased by 20% and 10%, respectively.
