Oriental Energy in east China rose to the first place with about 102,000 tonnes of LPG imports in July, according to data from the General Administration of Customs.

This volume went up by 52% month on month and accounted for 23% of China's LPG imports in the month.

The company boosted imports mainly because of lower costs of July cargoes and insufficient stockpiles, said a market source. Oriental Energy can store a large volume of LPG in summer when prices are relatively low, as it has 500,000 cbm of storage capacity at Ningbo port in Zhejiang province.

Zhuhai NewOcean ranked the second with 56,000 tonnes of LPG imports in the month.

Regarding imports in January-July, Dongguan Jovo Energy in Guangdong took the first place, with its imports up by 91% year on year to 256,996 tonnes, the data showed.