Asia/Pacific News
China Hikes VLSFO Export Quotas in First Batch for 2023
China has increased VLSFO export quotas in the first batch for this year, in a vote of confidence for bunker demand in the region despite global economic concerns.
China has released 8 million mt of VLSFO export quotas in this year's first batch, news agency Reuters reported on Tuesday, citing data from consultancies JLC and Longzhong. The figure is up by 23% from the 6.5 million mt released in the first batch for 2022.
The quotas are likely to be mostly for bonded bunker sales at Chinese ports.
China has made significant strides to take a larger share of global bunker demand over the past three years, with the port of Zhoushan benefiting in particular.
Zhoushan's bunker sales jumped by 14.7% in the first three quarters of last year from the same period a year earlier, according to Ship & Bunker and BLUE Insight's quarterly market survey, compared with a 2.6% average decline for the 17 areas around the world covered by the survey.
