China doesn't disclose the volumes of crude flowing into or out of strategic and commercial stockpiles, but an estimate can be made by deducting the amount of crude processed from the total of crude available from imports and domestic output.
The total volume of crude available from imports and domestic production in December was 15.29 million bpd, consisting of imports of 11.32 million bpd and local output of 3.97 million bpd.
Refinery throughput rose 2.5% year-on-year in December to 14.1 million bpd, meaning the volume of crude available exceeded the amount processed by 1.19 million bpd.
The question for the wider crude market is whether China's ongoing storage flows have any implications for the likely demand trend in 2023 in the world's biggest oil importer.
Since China doesn't disclose its inventory levels, or talk about them, the market tends to ignore them as a factor, even though there is tremendous focus on U.S. stockpiles and movements in the U.S. strategic petroleum reserve.