China's crude-oil imports are expected to recover in August due to higher refinery throughput after hitting a nine-month low in July, but any gains will be limited due to weak demand for refined products, reflecting China's slowing industrial and manufacturing sector.

HSBC Holdings said Monday that its Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index declined in August to its lowest level since March 2009, while an official version of China's PMI, released Saturday, also fell to a nine-month low, indicating continued contraction in manufacturing activity.

Still, preliminary August crude import data, due Monday, will likely show both on-month and on-year growth, analysts said.

Although Chinese demand for gasoline and diesel is relatively stable, crude imports and refinery throughput will still rise in August due to the end of heavy refinery maintenance in the second quarter, analysts at energy consultancy ICIS C1 Energy said.

Chinese refineries are expected to process 3.4% more crude in August than July, data from C1 showed. China's crude runs began to recover in July after refinery throughput shrank on year for three consecutive months.

China's two largest refiners, PetroChina Co. (>> PetroChina Company Limited) and China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. (>> China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation), known as Sinopec Corp., are expected to process a combined 30 million metric tons of crude in August, up 1.63% from a month earlier, C1 said. The two state-run refiners account for 70% of the country's total refinery throughput.

Meanwhile, China's independent refiners, known as teapots, are expected to raise throughput by a third in August, C1 said, without elaborating. The refineries, mostly based in Shandong province, will account for 12% of the country's total refinery throughput in August, it said.

Chinese refiners have also likely increased refinery operating rates since July thanks to a hike in the retail prices of gasoline and diesel in early August, the first increase since March.

China's diesel demand is in line with relatively weak industrial production growth, which slowed for two consecutive months--to 9.5% in June and 9.2% in July. Industrial production growth data for August, due Sunday, likely slowed further, to 9.0% due to weak global demand and consequent destocking, according to an average forecast of 12 economist polled by Dow Jones Newswires.

However, upcoming harvest season in September and October will likely support domestic diesel demand, said Hu Huichun, an oil analyst at Shandong-based energy consultancy Chem99.