Nov. 5 (Bloomberg) -- China, the world's second-largest energy user, may halt diesel imports for a second month in November because of rising stockpiles, traders said.

China International United Petroleum & Chemical Corp. and China National United Oil Corp., the nation's biggest oil traders, won't buy any diesel cargoes this month, said two officials with knowledge of the companies' purchase plans. They declined to be named because of internal rules.

Fuel inventories have risen as oil-product consumption fell after the world's fourth-largest economy grew at the slowest pace since 2003 in the third quarter. China increased imports of diesel, used to fuel trucks and power generators, to a record 970,000 metric tons in July to ensure supplies during the August Olympics Games.

``Domestic consumption has waned even as we approach the peak winter demand season,'' Yao Daming, the director of the oil department at Guangdong Oil & Gas Association, said by telephone in Guangdong province, the nation's manufacturing hub. ``Stockpiles at privately owned teapot refineries are currently very high.''

Unipec, as China International is known, may not need to import diesel cargoes in the short term, said one of the traders, declining to be more specific.

The nation's stockpiles of petrochemicals have risen to records because of the slowing economy, PetroChina Co.'s Chairman Jiang Jiemin said last month. Chinaoil, as China National is known, is the trading unit of PetroChina, the nation's largest oil producer.

China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., Asia's biggest oil refiner, will cut crude-oil processing volume at refineries with ``relatively low profitability'' because of falling fuel demand, parent China Petrochemical Corp. said earlier this week. Unipec is a unit China Petroleum, known as Sinopec.

To contact the reporter on this story: Winnie Zhu in Shanghai at wzhu4@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: November 5, 2008 03:18 EST