Cheap oil bonanza eludes Chinese refiners

Shanghai

HUANG Haidong misses the flush times in 2010 when his refinery in eastern China couldn't produce diesel fast enough to fill the trucks lined up outside.

"There was a fuel shortage," said Mr Huang, who works as a supply manager at one of 40 "teapot" or small, privately held plants that dot Shandong province. "We ran our units at more than 80 per cent at that time and still couldn't meet demand. But things changed after the expansion frenzy."

His plant cut processing rates by half over the past four years as China's refining capacity expanded 33 per cent an…