China steps up efforts on ocean-going oil tankers
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2004-07-10 11:15

A senior shipping official with the China Shipping Group, one of the country's leading shipping firms, said China is beefing up its efforts to form ocean-going fleets of oil tankers.

Addressing a seminar on ship-building in China Thursday, Sun Zhitang, deputy general manager of the China Shipping Group, said he believes that Chinese shipping firms would be capable of shipping about 30 percent of the country's oil imports five years from now.

At present, China's shipping firms shipped only 10 percent of the country's oil imports transportation.

According to Customs figures, China imported 91.12 million tons of crude and 28.24 million tons of refined oil in 2003. Experts estimated China's crude oil imports might exceed 100 million tons this year.

Sun said China has to rely on overseas shipping firms to ship most of its oil imports as its ocean-going shipping firms are in an acute shortage of large oil tankers.

China Ocean Shipping (Group) Company (COSCO), the country's biggest shipping company, and China Shipping Group, have ordered huge oil tankers with designed shipping capacity of up to 300,000 dead weight tons, said the deputy general manager.

COSCO announced last month that it would expand its crude oil fleet to nearly 4 million dead weight tons in three years, from the current 1.94 million deadweight tons.

The ambitious plan was made to cater to COSCO's establishment of a long-term strategic partnership for cooperation with Sinopec, China's leading producer and supplier of petroleum products.

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