In the first nine months of this year, an interesting phenomenon has occurred in the global crude oil market.

A certain major country has reached a daily crude oil import volume of 11 million barrels - this figure is equivalent to the daily production of the entire country of Saudi Arabia, accounting for 10% of global production. In order to store this crude oil, the number of oil depots planned and constructed in the past two years has reached 11, whereas only 9 have been built from 2006 to 2024 over the course of 18 years. The GDP growth rates of petrochemical heavyweights like Dalian, Zhoushan, and Yantai have all exceeded 6%, clearly higher than the national average, with visible infrastructure dividends.

In the first three quarters, a total of 423 million tons of crude oil were imported. The contradiction lies in the fact that the economy's demand for traditional energy is actually decreasing—natural gas imports fell by 11%, and the number of new energy vehicles surged by 40 million, which can replace the consumption of 25 million tons of gasoline each year. With demand decreasing, why are we still buying so much?

The answer lies in the price. Oil prices have fallen to a five-year low. As a result, the strategic petroleum reserves have reached six months, far exceeding the internationally recognized safety line of three months.

In addition to crude oil, gold is also seeing continuous inflows. The gold price has risen from $2000 to $3000, and buying has not stopped along the way. Official data shows a purchase volume of about 25 tons, but Société Générale believes the actual figure is significantly underestimated—real purchases could be around 250 tons, accounting for one-third of the global total. Looking back now, those price levels really were not expensive.