Bunker Fuel

[Updated 15 May] JLC China Bunker Market Monthly Report (April 2025)

Country sold about 1.76 million mt of bonded bunker fuel in the month, with daily sales at 58,757 mt, climbing by 7.80% month on month, JLC’s data shows.

Published

1 year ago

May 13, 2025

Admin

JLC China Bunker Market Monthly Report (April 2025)

Beijing-based commodity market information provider JLC Network Technology Co. recently shared its JLC China Bunker monthly report for April 2025 with Manifold Times through an exclusive arrangement:

Note [15 May]: JLC has removed two ship arrivals from the table in Sheet 13 “Arrival of Imported Fuel Oil”, as these cargoes were scheduled to arrive in May instead of April. In the first version of this report, the arrival time of the cargoes was mistakenly written as April. JLC apologizes for this mistake.

Bunker Fuel Demand

China’s bonded bunker fuel sales grow in April

China’s bonded bunker fuel sales grew in April, as shipping demand improved.

The country sold about 1.76 million mt of bonded bunker fuel in the month, with daily sales at 58,757 mt, climbing by 7.80% month on month, JLC’s data shows.

Bonded bunker fuel sales by Chimbusco, Sinopec (Zhoushan), SinoBunker and China Changjiang Bunker (Sinopec) settled at 450,000 mt, 580,000 mt, 45,000 mt and 25,000 mt in the month, while suppliers with regional bunkering licenses sold 662,700 mt.

HSFO sales increased when the price spread between LSFO and HSFO widened.

China’s LSFO output declines further in April

China’s LSFO output declined further in April, as more refineries launched maintenance, also because of still bad production margins.

Chinese refiners produced 1.04 million mt of LSFO in the month, with the daily output at 34,767 mt, down by 4.20% month on month and 15.96% year on year, JLC’s data indicates.

Sinopec’s LSFO production fell in the month as Tianjin Petrochemical and Hunan Petrochemical came under maintenance. The company’s Shanghai Gaoqiao Petrochemical and Jiujiang Petrochemical were still under turnarounds. In addition, Qingdao Petrochemical and Shengli Oilfield lowered their LSFO output.

PetroChina also recorded a drop in its output in April, with Liaohe Petrochemical slightly cutting output and Jinxi Petrochemical suspending production amid unit maintenance.

On the flip side, CNOOC saw a modest rise in its daily LSFO output, as Zhoushan Petrochemical’s production boost counteracted Huizhou Refinery’s maintenance. Zhongjie Petrochemical and Taizhou Petrochemical maintained normal production.

ZPC and Sinochem did not produce any LSFO in April, but the latter exported 15,000 mt of MGO.

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Domestic-trade heavy bunker fuel demand rallies in April

Domestic-trade heavy bunker fuel demand rallied in April, as shipowners showed higher buying interest and restocking increased before the Labor Day holiday.

Domestic-trade heavy bunker fuel demand settled at 380,000 mt in the month, growing by 20,000 mt or 5.56% month on month, JLC’s data shows.

At the same time, domestic-trade light bunker fuel demand stabilized at 150,000 mt, the data shows. Fundamentals in the diesel market did not change much.

Bunker Fuel Supply

China’s bonded bunker fuel imports continue to grow in March

China’s bonded bunker fuel imports continued to grow in March, due to tighter domestic supply and lower international bunker fuel prices.

Bonded distributors imported 665,800 mt of bonded bunker fuel in the month, rising by 9.13% from a month earlier and 73.70% year on year, JLC calculated, with reference to data from the GACC.

Domestic refiners continued to cut their LSFO production amid more unit maintenance and lower production margins, forcing distributors to raise their imports to meet demand. Meanwhile, global bunker fuel prices dropped amid a plunge in international crude prices, which also prompted domestic traders to increase imports.

The UAE shipped 200,200 mt of bonded bunker fuel to China in March, taking 30.06% of China’s total

imports and becoming the largest bonded bunker supplier to China. Singapore remained in the second place with 200,000 mt, accounting for 30.04%, while Malaysia came in third with 168,000 mt, accounting for 25.24%. South Korea ranked fourth with 55,200 mt, accounting for 8.29%, followed by Russia with 42,400 mt, occupying 6.37%.

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Domestic-trade bunker fuel supply increases in April

Domestic-trade bunker fuel supply increased in April, because of increasing availability of shale oil and low-sulfur residual oil, though the blending business in East China did not resume.

Blenders supplied about 380,000 mt of domestic-trade heavy bunker fuel in the month, a boost of 30,000 mt or 8.57% month on month, JLC’s data shows.

Blendstock supply became relatively sufficient, as supply of low-sulfur residual oil and shale oil increased while that of light coal tar and coal-based diesel stabilized. Meanwhile, blenders showed higher blending interest as downstream restocking demand grew.

Heavy bunker fuel supply increased in North China and Shandong, while that in East China was still depressed by a halt in the local blending business.

Domestic-trade light bunker fuel supply settled at 170,000 mt in April, up by 20,000 mt or 13.33% month on month, the data shows.

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Bunker Prices, Profits

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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: 13 May, 2025

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LNG Bunkering

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.

Published

19 hours ago

September 7, 2026

Admin

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

19 hours ago

September 7, 2026

Admin

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

19 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