OREANDA-NEWS  In early autumn, China, which is a key buyer of Russian raw materials, sharply increased oil imports from Brazil. Interfax reports on the emergence of a serious competitor in the Asian country's raw materials market, citing data from the General Customs Administration (GTU) of the People's Republic of China.

In September, the average daily supply of Brazilian oil to China reached 1.25 million barrels. The indicator jumped by almost 42 percent on a monthly basis, and by more than 20 percent on an annual basis.

Such dynamics allowed the Latin American country to bypass Saudi Arabia in the ranking of the largest suppliers of raw materials to the Chinese market. According to the results of the first three quarters of 2026, Brazil took the second place, second only to Russia, which retained the status of the main exporter of oil to China.
 
In January-September, Russian oil exports to China reached about 87.6 million tons. Year-on-year, the indicator grew by 18.3 percent in physical terms and by 36.6 percent in money. By the end of the summer, according to OPEC data, domestic energy companies had provided 30 percent of China's import needs for raw materials.

However, it will be difficult for Russia to maintain the same high growth rates of exports of key types of energy resources to China in the long term, experts agree. Large-scale disruptions in the supply of Middle Eastern energy resources due to the blocking of the Strait of Hormuz have changed China's energy policy. As a result, China has become increasingly focused on developing green energy.

At the same time, the authorities of the Asian country are striving to diversify the structure of oil imports as much as possible, so as not to depend on several foreign suppliers. In addition, as noted by Reuters columnist Ron Bousso, China has become more reliant on its own reserves of raw materials, considered the largest in the world. Such an energy strategy, he explained, had allowed China to save billions of dollars on oil purchases since the beginning of the crisis in the Middle East and helped avoid a rapid rise in fuel prices on the domestic market.