Sinopec, the world’s largest charterer of dirty tankers, has unveiled a plan to build the first VLCC dock at Lianyungang for local requirements and transshipments to central China.
The Chinese energy major said it would soon establish a joint venture with Lianyungang Port Holding Group to prepare for the dock construction in the Xu Wei area of Lianyungang.
“We will set up a joint working group for the works imminently,” Sinopec said.
Located in the Chinese province of Jiangsu, Lianyungang has only been capable of receiving MR tankers previously.
The Chinese central government and local authorities have launched a CNY 7.58bn ($1.12bn) project to build a channel for 300,000-dwt vessels in the port, which will be commissioned in 2021.
Shenghong Petrochemical is building a refinery with crude processing capacity of 16 million tonnes per annum as well as associated petrochemical plants in Lianyungang.
According to Sinopec, the VLCC dock will enable crude imports for the port’s own requirements and transshipments to Nanjing and other middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.
“This will reduce our crude transport costs and improve our competitiveness as a company,” Sinopec said.
Via its trading arm Unipec, Sinopec spot chartered 985 dirty tankers last year out of an industry total of 10,515 fixtures, data from Poten & Partners showed.
The company shipped an estimated 217.1 million tonnes of crude and other dirty products in 2018, or 14.7% of all dirty cargoes, up from 13.8% in 2017.
Poten recorded 703 spot VLCC fixtures for Unipec last year, a figure higher than the leading VLCC charterers combined.
