Bunker Fuel

JLC China Bunker Fuel Market Monthly Report (November 2024)

China’s bonded bunker fuel sales rebounded in November, as bunker suppliers received more imported cargoes, also as a result of some ports’ and companies’ attempts to boost sales.

Published

2 years ago

December 12, 2024

Admin

JLC China Bunker Fuel Market Monthly Report (November 2024)

Beijing-based commodity market information provider JLC Network Technology Co. recently shared its JLC China Bunker monthly report for November 2024 with Manifold Times through an exclusive arrangement:

China’s bonded bunker fuel sales rebound in November

China’s bonded bunker fuel sales rebounded in November, as bunker suppliers received more imported cargoes, also as a result of some ports’ and companies’ attempts to boost sales.

The country sold about 1.52 million mt of bonded bunker fuel in the month, with daily sales at 50,647 mt, up by 8.03% from a month earlier, JLC’s data shows.

Bonded bunker fuel sales by Chimbusco, Sinopec (Zhoushan), SinoBunker and China Changjiang Bunker (Sinopec) settled at 320,000 mt, 570,000 mt, 62,000 mt and 15,000 mt in the month, while those by suppliers with regional bunkering licenses came in at 552,400 mt.

Overall bunkering demand was relatively fair in November, and bunker suppliers saw more inflows of imported low-sulfur fuel oil (LSFO). Meanwhile, some Chinese ports and bonded distributors made efforts to boost their sales to achieve their sales targets by the end of this year. However, there were also some companies cutting sales as they had completed their sales targets.

China’s bonded bunker fuel exports drop to 8-month low in October

China’s bonded bunker fuel exports plunged significantly in October, hitting an eight-month low, because of tight LSFO supply, while bonded bunker fuel imports surge to a 35-month high.

The country exported roughly 1.28 million mt of bonded bunker fuel in the month, the lowest level since February 2024, JLC estimated, with reference to data from the General Administration of Customs of PRC (GACC). The daily exports stood at 41,374 mt in October, down by 43.16% month on month and 11.99% year on year.

Among the cargoes, heavy bunker fuel exports settled at 1.20 million mt, accounting for 93.76% of the country’s total exports, while light bunker fuel exports came in at 80,000 mt, making up 6.24%.

Chinese refiners slashed their LSFO production as their export quotas tightened, coupled with the lingering impact from bad weather at certain ports, dragging down China’s bonded bunker fuel exports.

Refiners produced only 787,700 mt of LSFO in October, with the daily output at 25,410 mt, a loss of 23.23% month on month and 22.39% year on year, JLC’s data shows.

China’s bonded bunker fuel exports totaled 16.37 million mt in January-October, with the daily exports at 53,685 mt, a slip of 1.96% from the corresponding months in 2023, the data shows. In breakdown, heavy bunker fuel exports stood at 15.28 million mt, accounting for 93.32%, while light bunker fuel exports amounted to 1.09 million mt, accounting for 6.68%.

JLC China Bunker Fuel Market Monthly Report (November 2024)

Domestic-trade bunker fuel demand rallies in November

Domestic-trade bunker fuel demand rallied in November, as trade became more active amid increasing supply of consumption-tax-included resources.

Domestic-trade heavy bunker fuel demand settled at 380,000 mt in the month, a gain of 20,000 mt or 5.56% from the prior month, JLC’s data shows.

Regarding the consumption by region, the Bohai Rim still took a major share on the strength of competitive prices, while the turnover of other regions was limited.

At the same time, domestic-trade light bunker fuel demand jumped to 150,000 mt, up by 20,000 mt or 15.38% month on month. Participants were slightly bullish on light bunker fuel prices when transportation demand in inland rivers became seasonally strong and diesel demand from infrastructure construction increased.

Bunker Fuel Supply

China’s bonded bunker fuel imports surge again in October

Chinese companies boosted their bonded bunker fuel imports to 675,400 mt in October, a surge of 19.18% from the previous month and 66.93% from a year earlier. The imports reached the highest level since November 2021.

Bonded suppliers continued to boost their imports to meet demand when domestic supply tightened further. These distributors placed orders for a large amount of imported LSFO in late August and September, and some of the cargoes arrived in October, which also pushed up October’s LSFO arrivals. High-sulfur fuel oil (HSFO) imports climbed in October, while marine gas oil (MGO) imports held largely stable.

Regarding the imports by supplier, Malaysia remained the largest supplier with 271,300 mt, accounting for 40.17% of China’s total imports. Meanwhile, Singapore climbed to the second place with 265,800 mt, occupying 39.36%, followed by Russia with 56,900 mt, accounting for 8.42%. South Korea and Japan came in third and fourth with 42,900 mt and 38,500 mt, making up 6.35% and 5.69%, respectively.

In the first ten months, China imported about 4.03 million mt of bonded bunker fuel, soaring by 22.61% year on year, speeding up from an upsurge of 16.39% in January-September.

JLC China Bunker Fuel Market Monthly Report (November 2024)

Domestic-trade bunker fuel supply rises in November

Domestic-trade bunker fuel supply rose in November, because of more supply of blendstock.

Chinese blenders supplied about 400,000 mt of heavy bunker fuel in the month, a boost of 30,000 mt or 8.11% from the previous month, JLC’s data shows. More supply of low-sulfur residual oil and shale oil prompted blenders to ramp up their production.

Meanwhile, domestic-trade MGO supply leaped to 180,000 mt, up by 20,000 mt or 12.5% month on month. Refineries maintained high operating rates, coupled with rising diesel prices and relatively good diesel demand, leading to a surge in MGO supply.

JLC China Bunker Fuel Market Monthly Report (November 2024)

Bunker Prices, Profits

JLC China Bunker Fuel Market Monthly Report (November 2024)

Editor
Yvette Luo
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Sales (Beijing)
Tony Tang
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JLC Network Technology Co., Ltd is recognised as the leading information provider in China. We specialise in providing the transparent, high-value, authoritative market intelligence and professional analysis in commodity market. Our expertise covers oil, gas, coal, chemical, plastic, rubber, fertilizer and metal industry, etc.

JLC China Bunker Fuel Market Monthly Report is published by JLC Network Technology Co., Ltd every month on China bunker market, demand, supply, margin, freight index, forecast and so on. The report provides full-scale & concise insight into China bunker oil market.

Note: China-based commodity market information provider JLC Technology has been providing Singapore bunkering publication Manifold Times China bunker volume data since 2020. Data from earlier periods are available here.

Photo credit: JLC Network Technology
Published: 12 December, 2024

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Singapore-based EPS takes delivery of three LNG dual-fuel bulk carriers

Three vessels are the third, fourth and fifth in the company’s series of 14 Newcastlemaxes being built at the yard, and were delivered five months ahead of their contracted delivery dates.

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September 7, 2026

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Singapore-based Eastern Pacific Shipping (EPS) on Friday (4 September) announced the naming and delivery of three new LNG dual-fuel Newcastlemax bulk carriers from China’s Qingdao Beihai Shipbuilding.

Cyril Ducau, CEO of EPS, said the vessels were named Mount Victoria, Mount Yulong and Mount Wuyi.

The three vessels are the third, fourth and fifth in the company’s series of 14 Newcastlemaxes being built at the yard, and were delivered five months ahead of their contracted delivery dates.

“A big thank you to CSSC Group and Qingdao Beihai Shipbuilding, working alongside our EPS team, for the tremendous collaboration and commitment behind this achievement,” Ducau said in a social media post.

Photo credit: Eastern Pacific Shipping
Published: 7 September, 2026

Port & Regulatory

UCL on ISWG-GHG 22: Majority back GHG pricing, centralised fund in IMO NZF talks

A significant majority of IMO member states backed a centralised system for collecting revenues to reward early adopters and support a just transition, according to UCL.

Published

9 hours ago

September 7, 2026

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UCL Shipping and Oceans Research Group on Friday (4 September) said the IMO’s 22nd Intersessional Working Group on GHG emissions has concluded with significant majority of member states supporting a centralised system for collecting revenues, operationalised through a GHG price (RU price), and disbursing it for rewards for early adopters and supporting a just and equitable transition.

The group of member states focused on a technical-only solution and abandonment of GHG pricing, remained small and consistently composed of strongly fossil fuel aligned governments.

Just as at MEPC 84, the political dynamics observed at MEPC.ES2 did not occur in this meeting.

The discussions were more representative of the ISWG-GHG 19 and MEPC 83 negotiating dynamics, but this does not rule out the potential for the dynamics that occurred at MEPC.ES2 returning in future meetings. That said, there was reassuring evidence from the week that reduces that risk, including in the contrast between strong public (press) positions taken against the IMO’s NZF, and the substance of how delegations negotiated in the meeting.

Dr Tristan Smith, Professor of Energy and Transport at UCL Shipping and Oceans Research Group, said: “Whilst there are many positives to take away – there is clear potential for a return to a strong policy solution and decision making this December, there remains high uncertainty in the extent that both industry’s transition and low-income countries’ transitions will be supported.

“There remains high risk that in the effort to find a creative way forwards, the equilibrium between these two aspects, that enabled the NZF in the first place, is lost to the detriment of the outcome overall.”

In addition to the discussion on centralised system for revenue collection and disbursement, the meeting discussed a number of other items as guided by the chair, discussed in detail with member state positions in the readout. Some of these included:

GFI (Global Fuel Intensity) reduction pathway: GFI is likely to be softened initially (around 2030), but then steeper in the period to 2040.
ZNZ rewards: ZNZ reward still broadly supported and a priority to many member states, but the broad support for a multiplier, despite it being taken off the table at the last meeting, could yet lead this to be incorporated to provide incentivisation.
Compliance approaches:
Most interventions confirmed support for the compliance mechanisms as setup in NZF ‘as is’. The strongest support was for the two least controversial options common to all proposals: reducing GHG intensity and pooling/transfer of SU.
Direct contributions: Japan’s proposal to replace GHG pricing with shipowner-directed contributions was robustly rejected, particularly by the member states that would need to ‘swing’ to support it for this to start to build momentum.
SU (Surplus Units) trading: Majority of member states opposed the inclusion of energy efficiency SU credits and the concept of printing SU’s to manage an SU price shock, citing various reasons, primarily a concern that this would destabilise the SU market and undermine investment predictability.
Netting: China’s proposal to balance of RU and reward payments that could be netted to form a single transaction received broad support. However, the details of the concept will now need to be set out in guidelines and there remain a number of issues regarding this approach, as raised by several delegations.

Note: The full article can be read here.

Photo credit: UCL Shipping and Oceans Research Group
Published: 7 September, 2026

LNG Bunkering

LR awards AiP to CSSC Huangpu Wenchong for 12,500 m³ LNG bunker vessel design

Vessel design incorporates Type C LNG cargo tanks and has been evaluated against a range of class notations covering gas operations, automation, environmental performance and cyber resilience.

Published

9 hours ago

September 7, 2026

Admin

Classification society Lloyd’s Register (LR) on Thursday (3 September) said it has awarded Approval in Principle (AiP) to CSSC Huangpu Wenchong Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. for a new 12,500 m³ LNG bunkering vessel design.

The AiP was signed at SMM 2026 in Hamburg and confirms that the vessel concept has successfully completed an independent design assessment against LR’s latest classification requirements.

The new 12,500 m³ vessel design incorporates Type C LNG cargo tanks and has been evaluated against a comprehensive range of class notations covering gas operations, automation, environmental performance and cyber resilience.

LR’s assessment was carried out in accordance with its Rules and Regulations for the Classification of Ships and Rules and Regulations for the Construction and Classification of Ships for the Carriage of Liquefied Gas in Bulk.

Constantinos Chaelis, LR’s Global Gas Segment Director, said: “This project demonstrates the continued market confidence in LNG and the importance of building the supporting infrastructure that enables owners to make practical emissions reductions today, while maintaining flexibility for the future. Through early engagement between shipyard and class, we can accelerate the delivery of robust designs that meet both operational and regulatory requirements.”

A Huangpu Wenchong spokesperson, said: “This Approval in Principle from Lloyd’s Register validates the technical approach and provides a strong foundation for future development. We believe vessels of this type will play an increasingly important role in supporting the energy transition by helping ensure LNG is available where shipowners need it most.”

Photo credit: Lloyd’s Register
Published: 7 September, 2026