OREANDA-NEWS. September 11, 2012. If there's one group of people happy at China's slowing economic growth it's likely to be refiners in Asia, who continue to benefit from strong margins as Chinese competitors limit fuel exports.

The profit from making gasoil, or diesel, in Asia rose to the highest in 14 months as global supplies tightened with the shutdown of units in the US Gulf ahead of Hurricane Isaac and a fire at Venezuela's biggest refinery.

The US is a major diesel exporter to Europe and traders believe Asia may be called upon to fill in any drop in supplies across the Atlantic.

The approaching hurricane and the refinery blaze didn't have the same positive impact on Asian gasoline margins, which fell to the lowest in a month on Tuesday amid ample supplies and a lack of willingness of traders to take the risk of sending cargoes to the U.S. West Coast, amid concern the market dynamics may change before the shipments arrive.

Alternately, China could choose to import gasoline, which would be a further boost to Asian refiners as it would likely lift the profit from making the motor fuel.

However, in light of Sinopec's plans to refine an additional 5 million tons of crude in the second half, which equates to about an extra 200,000 bpd, the risks must be that China is about to resume gasoil exports.

This isn't to say that gasoil cracks are likely to ease in the second half of the year as there are plenty of reasons for them to remain elevated, including refinery turnarounds reducing output, building of inventories ahead of the northern winter and increased demand from countries like Australia.

But if China does resume gasoil exports, it will be a bearish factor in an otherwise bullish market.