Asia/Pacific News
Methanol Bunker Trading Platform Planned for China
Methanol bunkering firm Green Marine is planning to establish a trading platform for the alternative fuel in China.
The company has signed a strategic collaboration agreement with the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone Lingang special Area Administration setting out plans to develop methanol bunkering in China, it said in a statement on its website last week.
The firm plans at first to establish a methanol bunkering training and certification centre in the Lingang area.
"Moreover, Green Marine will establish an on-line "Green Fuels Trading Platform" within the Lingang Special Area," the company said in the statement.
"This platform will furnish methanol producers and downstream enterprises in the green fuels and shipping industries with effective tools to manage long-term methanol price fluctuations and facilitate physical transactions of methanol marine fuel.
"By enhancing the Lingang Special Area's capability to allocate green fuel resources for commercial vessels in both international and domestic markets, this initiative will play a pivotal role in developing a world-class green shipping fuel service ecosystem within the Shanghai region."
Methanol is rapidly gaining in popularity as an alternative marine fuel, driven in large part by the container industry's confidence in it, with orders of methanol-fuelled tonnage now coming in regularly from a variety of shipping segments. The main challenge for this market will be the scaling-up of green methanol supply in time to meet the needs of the new ships as they are delivered.
