Cosco orders another pair of VLCCs

China Ocean Shipping (Cosco) has ordered two more VLCC tankers to be delivered by 2007 in order to cope with China?s soaring oil imports. The VLCCs, each with a carrying capability of about two million barrels, will be built by Universal Shipbuilding in Japan.

Cosco will own 15 VLCCs by 2010 and the company aims to carry 30 % of China’s oil imports by 2010. Cosco, China Shipping (Group) and China National Foreign Trade Transportation (Group) Corp will expand the country’s oil tanker fleet by at least 38% this year to transport the oil imports for the world’s fastest-growing energy market. At the start of the year, China’s crude oil tanker capacity was 5.2 million tons, or about 38 million barrels.

China’s growth in oil demand exceeded one million barrels a day in the first half, prompting imports to soar more than a third. The government wants half the imports to be carried on Chinese-owned tankers by the end of 2005, up from the current 10%.