Chinese demand factors into global rise in oil prices
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Chinese demand factors into global rise in oil prices
SOURCE: Various Sources
July 25, 2004 - Surging Chinese demand is underpinning the recent spike in the price of oil, figures from the International Energy Agency show.
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Traffic reaches a standtill in Beijing. China has adopted tougher vehicle emissions standards in an effort to clean up a suffocating air pollution problem amid a nationwide wave of car purchases.(AFP/File/Frederic J. Brown) |
.jpg "Chinese Gloabl Oil Prices ZAP ZP")
In the first three months of 2004, when China's economy grew at a breakneck pace of 9.7 percent, demand for oil in China grew almost 1 million barrels a day.
The "China factor" has more bearing on oil prices than the "risk factor" coming from global tensions, some experts say.
While speculative buying on heightened tension in the Middle East is seen as the reason oil futures touched a 21-year high of $41.85 a barrell in New York earlie this month, oil experts insist the price rises are driven primarily by demand growth -- about half of which is coming from China.
An energy exporter until just a few years ago, China is now the world's fastest growing major importer of oil.
Chinese auto sales have been credited for the recent rise in oil prices. Reports from CarConnection.com show that sales of passenger cars in China soared from 750,000 units in 2001 to 1.2 million in 2002 and then nearly doubled to 2.1 million in 2003. This puts China next in line behind Britain, where sales were 2.6 million in 2003.
China adopted tougher vehicle emissions standards in an effort to clean up a suffocating air pollution problem amid a nationwide wave of car purchases.
The new standards will regulate a 30 percent cut in carbon monoxide, and 55 percent cuts in hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxide from the Euro I standards adopted by China in 2001, the report said. China will adopt Euro III standards nationwide in 2008.
Beijing and Shanghai adopted the Euro II standards in early 2003, but pollution levels in the capital remain among the worst in the country that is known to have some of the world's most serious air pollution.
Vehicles failing to meet the new standards will not be registered, while automakers will also have to ensure their cars meet the new standards as they roll out of the factory, the report said.