China’s bonded bunker market is expected to be more promising than the internal-trade market during the next five years. Firmer economic, given supportive policies and fiercer market competition, China’s bonded bunker fuel consumption is predicted to grow at an average annual rate of around 22%. By 2014, I predict, the demand will jump up approximately 270% from the level in 2009 to about 18.5-million metric tonne (mt).

China has huge port turnover, but small bunker consumption at present. The aggregate bunker sales volume in the major international ports like Shanghai, Ningbo-Zhoushan, Qingdao and Shenzhen is approximately equal to the sales in Hong Kong port alone.
 
During 2005-2009, every 10,000mt of cargo turnover in foreign trade only needed 25.43 mt of bonded bunker fuel on average each year. The demand was at the highest in 2008 with 34.09mt. The figures are sharply lower than the 670-680 mt recorded in Singapore. That also indicates huge potential for further growth in bonded bunker consumption in the years ahead.
 
With the lift of geographic restrictions on operators by the central government, China’s bonded bunker market is expected to see continual expansion in market volume with more suppliers competing in the same ports. At present, the bonded bunker prices in many Chinese ports are too high to attract ship-owners due to monopoly.