Nanjing Tanker named shipping partner of Taizhou Petrochemical

Nanjing Tanker, the oil-shipping arm of Sinotrans & CSC, has signed an agreement with Taizhou Petrochemical after being selected as the petrochemical project’s shipping partner.

China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), China’s third-largest national oil company, built the Taizhou Petrochemical plant in 2012 with an investment of CNY10.2 billion (USD1.65 billion). It is expected to be operational in the second half of 2015, and will produce feedstocks for petrochemicals, liquefied petroleum gas, fuel oil, as well as lubricants.

Nanjing Tanker is half-owned by the state-owned Sinotrans & CSC Group. In May 2014, it became the first state-owned enterprise in China to lose its stock market listing after four years of consecutive losses. Withholding information about its debts, it received financing from 19 banks in 11 countries to purchase 20 vessels. After completing a restructuring in January, Nanjing Tanker expects to return to profit by 2015 and re-listed in the stock exchange by 2017.