According to the official trade statistics released by the Chinese customs on Tuesday, Base oils imports into China during January declined by about 77% as compared to the corresponding month of 2008. The country imported around 46,900 tonnes of base oils during January this year, a huge drop from the 212,500 tonnes imported in the same month last year. The fall did not come as a surprise to most industry players as demand in China had collapsed during December 2008 and January 2009. "Chinese base oils demand has picked up during February and March ahead of the traditional high demand season in April although no one can predict if this will be sustained through the year," said an Asian base oils producer. China is the single largest base oil importer in the region with total imports amounting to 1.37 m tonnes in 2008.