China single-hull ban to hit
tanker employment options

2009-11-16

CHINA has confirmed it will ban all single-hull tankers from January 1, further shrinking employment opportunities for the estimated fleet of 820 of single-hull vessels as a regulatory phase-out begins.

The second largest importer of crude after the US in 2009, China is a significant but diminishing trading destination for single hull tanker tonnage.

Both Chinese-flagged and foreign tankers engaged in international trades will be denied entry from Chinese ports from 2010, according to Dabin Sun, the second secretary (maritime) from the Chinese embassy in London.

He told Lloyd's List today that only single-hull tankers engaged in cabotage trades would be allowed to call at China's ports.

International Maritime Organization rules ban single-hulled tankers from 2010. But clauses allow vessels to continue trading until 2015 or age 25, with permission from port states and approval under a conditional assessment scheme.

But tankers are already banned from north American and European ports following a series of high-profile casualties in the 1990s, restricting trading to Middle East and Asian trades with looser regulatory requirements.

However the backlash from the Hebei Spirit single-hull tanker oil spill in South Korea in December 2007 accelerated phase-out plans in Asia, the discharge point for most of 90 single-hull very large crude carriers remaining in the fleet of 547.

About 150 were trading about 18 months ago, but scrapping and conversion projects have removed them from the fleet.

China has chartered about 20 single-hull VLCCs from the 188 fixtures recorded for the first nine months of 2009, according to US-based broker Poten & Partners. There were 628 single-hull fixtures recorded in 2007.

CHINA Ocean Shipping (Group)