China Need More Tankers to Meet Demand

China will build more oil tankers to meet the demand from rising imports and reduce its dependence on foreign carriers, a senior official of the Ministry of Communications has said.

Peng Cuihong, counsel to the ministry's water transport department, said the current size of the transport fleet falls way short of import needs.

The country imports more than 130 million tons of oil each year, about 90 percent of which is transported by ship. But domestic tankers shipped only 16 percent of the oil in 2006, according to the Institute of Comprehensive Transportation (ICT) affiliated to the National Development and Reform Commission.