China's onshore bonded storage capacity will increase by a total of 37% in three regions over the next three years, a development that can significantly boost the country's sales of marine fuel to ships on international voyages.

''The bonded storage expansion plan is expected to be completed in 2012,'' Leona Liao, editorial director of C1 Energy, told Bunkerworld at the sidelines of the Bunker Asia 2009 conference held in Singapore on November 4.

Ports surrounding the Bohai Ring, or Bohai Gulf, in the most northeastern part of China, will add 261,000 cubic metres (m³) of bonded storage capacity, on top of the existing 284,000 m³, Liao said.

The Yangtze River Delta, or Changjiang Delta, which encompasses the ports of Shanghai and Ningbo, will have 20,000 m³ more capacity over the current 513,000 m³.

The Pearl River Delta, which houses the ports of Yantian and Hong Kong, will increase its bonded storage capacity by 180,000 m³ from the existing 463,000 m³.

The planned bonded storage facility expansion for all three regions will boost the existing capacity of 1.26 million m³ by another 461,000 m³.

Bonded bunker fuel, as opposed to domestic bunker sales, is the driving force for growth in China's bunker fuel market, and will continue to be in the coming years, Liao predicted.

From 2009 through to 2013, China's bonded bunker fuel demand is forecast to rise from about 6.5 million mt in 2008 to 17.45 million mt in 2013, with average annual growth of 34-38%, according to C1 Energy, a local industry news agency.

Including bonded marine gasoil (MGO) sales, China will see its total demand for bonded bunker products hit 16 to 16.5 million by 2012 and 18 million mt by 2013.