CVX Chevron Corporation

Crude-oil prices fell in early Asia trade Monday, dragged by l ackluster Chinese manufacturing data and dimming prospects of a coordinated production cut by world's dominant oil producers.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in March traded at $32.93 a barrel at 0349 GMT, down $0.69 in the Globex electronic session. April Brent crude on London's ICE Futures exchange fell $0.74 to $35.25 a barrel.

Last week, prices rose on speculation Russia and Saudi Arabia were considering output cuts to support prices. The gains soon evaporated after Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries officials refuted such claims.

Hopes of a supply cut sank further after Iran said it "won't consider a cut" until its exports have increased by 1.5 million barrels a day over current levels of roughly 1.1 million barrels a day.

Oil prices have been dogged by oversupply concerns for nearly two years as major producers continued pumping at high rates to protect market shares, causing prices to plummet by more than 70% from 2008 highs.

"In this low-price environment, supply growth is the main issue, not demand," said Barnabas Gan, a commodity analyst at OCBC.

Prices also fell on disappointing Chinese manufacturing data. China's statistics bureau reported Monday that the official manufacturing purchasing managers index fell to 49.4 in January from 49.7 in December, marking the lowest level since August 2012 and the sixth straight month of contraction.

China's continuing slowdown has weighed on global oil demand. Last month, China said the country's economy grew 6.9% in 2015, the slowest pace in 25 years.

"This weak data would likely remind the market of bearishness again, suggesting more drops for the market in the week ahead," said Phillip Futures analyst Daniel Ang.

Still, some analysts say China's crude imports could grow around 7% this year after 2015's 8.8% growth, driven mostly by demand from local refiners and the government's effort to stock up strategic reserves.

"PMI is only one of the many factors when gauging China's oil demand such as electricity use and freight activities," said Vyanne Lai, an energy analyst at National Australia Bank.

The collapse in oil prices has roiled many oil companies. Some 17 exploration-and-production companies have announced a combined 30% cut in their capital budgets in 2016 from 2015, according to data compiled by The Wall Street Journal and Tortoise Capital Advisors.

Last week, Chevron Corp. said it would cut more jobs and capital spending after reporting a fourth-quarter loss of more than half a billion dollars.

Analysts say the current investment cuts are setting the stage for a gradual price rebound, but upsides will be capped by a stronger U.S. dollar and slowing global growth.

"As a result of the cuts in our forecast for North American oil production, we have downgraded the 2016 surplus in the global oil market by 413,000 barrels a day, from 1.045 million barrels a day previously to 632,000 barrels a day," BMI Research said.

"This steeper-than-expected contraction is signaling that there will be a price rally in 2016 when the fundamentals take center stage in price movements," it said.

Timothy Puko, Benoî t Faucon and Summer Said contributed to this article.

Write to Jenny W. Hsu at jenny.hsu@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 01, 2016 00:15 ET (05:15 GMT)

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