China imported 11.47 million tons of crude oil in March, the General Administration of Customs said Thursday.

    Crude oil imports in the first three months totaled 29.64 million tons, down 1.6 percent from a year earlier, the customs data showed, indicating that China's consumption was not expanding as strongly as the market had expected, due to the Chinese Government's drive to cool the economy.

    In the past few weeks, China has flashed signs of a sharper-than-expected slowdown in oil demand growth, with imports falling 12.7 percent in the first two months from a year earlier to 18.17 million tons, or 2.25 million barrels per day.

    The market was expecting demand to rise in the second quarter, but the pace of growth could be sharply below last year's average of nearly 16 percent.

    Gross domestic product figures issued Wednesday showed little sign of significant economic cooling, however. The economy expanded by a stronger-than-expected 9.5 percent in the year through the first quarter, despite cooling measures adopted since mid-2003.

    Imports of light diesel were 28,339 tons in March, down 82.4 percent from the same period last year, the customs administration said.

    Fuel oil imports fell 7 percent from the year-earlier period to 2.36 million tons in March, while kerosene imports rose 7.8 percent to 203,892 tons, it said.

    China exported 769,598 tons of gasoline in March, up 50.3 percent from the same period last year, it said.

(Source: Shenzhen Daily/Agencies)