OREANDA-NEWS. April 14, 2011. China witnessed tight gasoline supply in March due to robust demand and low operating rate at refineries, according to a report by China Petrochemical News.

Due to higher temperature, gasoline demand has increased. Some 6 million metric tons (tonnes) of gasoline was consumer in March, up 7. 3 percent from the same period last year and 11.9 percent from February.

However, local refineries had lower operating rates than the sam e period last year. The operating rate in east China Shandong province , for instance, fell from 49 percent at the end of 2010 to 32 percent in March.

Further, the two oil majors, namely China National Petroleum Cor poration (CNPC) and China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec Group), h ave started annual maintenance of refineries as schedule, leading to a dip in operating rates.