An official within the Ministry of Transport said that China plans to increase its crude tanker fleet's shipping capacity to 50 million metric tons by 2005. The capacity expansion is intended to assist Chinese shipping companies in filling a larger role in the transport of China's rapidly growing crude imports.
China's crude oil imports are projected to reach 100 million metric tons by 2005. The government also intends to further increase China's crude shipping capacity to 75 million tons by 2010 and 130 million tons by 2020.