[photopress:china_tanker.jpg,full,alignright]Industry analysts believe competition will be fierce for upcoming shipping contracts. These are expected after the Chinese government encouraged the buildup of the country’s oil shipping capacity out of concerns about energy security.
Of the oil the country imported last year only 16% was brought in on Chinese tankers. The assistant director of the China Association of the National Shipbuilding Industry, Yang Xinkun, said the country aims to raise that level to 50% by 2010.
Yang Xinkun said, ‘However, the companies that export oil to China all have their own shipping subsidiaries and affiliated tankers, and they all want to make profits, so it will be difficult for the new Chinese oil carriers to secure contracts.’
Peng Cuihong, a researcher with the Institute of Comprehensive Transportation under the National Development and Reform Commission, China’s top economic planner, told state media that at least 60% of oil import transport capacity should be filled by Chinese tankers in order to avoid any potential supply disruption. The same report quoted an official from the Ministry of Transportation as saying that China will build more oil tankers to meet rising import demand and reduce its dependence on foreign carriers.
China currently owns around 25 very large crude carriers (VLCC), which carry about 300,000 tons of oil each.
Domestic shipyards, including Dalian Shipbuilding Industry and China Ocean Shipping, the country’s two largest, have been busy building such vessels, as well as making orders to foreign ship builders in a bid to reach oil transportation capacity equal to 50% of the country’s oil imports by 2015.
The Hong Kong newspaper Singtao Daily said as many as 65 VLCCs are likely to be ordered before 2012 at the cost of $7.1 billion.
It seems something of a confused scene which will only clarify with time.
Source: Interfax