Zhoushan starts seeing a prosperous oil supply market. [Photo/WeChat account: china-zjftz]

Zhoushan in East China's Zhejiang province started seeing a prosperous oil supply market as its north anchorage ground supplied bunker oil to an international ship for the first time on Jan 13, local media reported.

The entire procedure took about six hours, four to six hours less than the time used at ports in Singapore. It also saved the owner about 250,000 yuan ($39,000) in tonnage taxes and pilotage charges.

According to Zhou Yuan from the Zhoushan port and shipping bureau, the anchorage ground is an anchorage outside of port and can exempt ships from tonnage tax and pilotage charge.

Since 2018, the bureau has outlined the construction of bunker oil anchorage grounds in Zhoushan, including 40 anchorage berths at six anchorage grounds in the north, 12 anchorage berths at two anchorage grounds in the center and 22 anchorage berths at four anchorage grounds in the south.

After all anchorage grounds in the north are put into operation, the oil supply capacity in northern Zhoushan will reach 2.6 million metric tons in 2025 and 9.15 million tons in 2030.

In 2020, the China (Zhejiang) Pilot Free Trade Zone in Zhoushan offered more than 4.72 million tons of bonded bunker oil, a year-on-year increase of 15.14 percent, ranking first in China and eighth in the world.

Zhou said that more than 45,000 international ships enter, leave or pass by northern Zhoushan, accounting for 42 percent of the total number in the city.

Northern Zhoushan is also close to the Yangtze Estuary, the second largest ship delivery destination in the world, and more than 50,000 international ships berth at the Yangtze Estuary each year, which creates a large market for maritime services to northern Zhoushan, he added.

Moving forward, Zhejiang FTZ will establish more anchorage grounds outside of port in northern Zhoushan to keep up with Singaporean ports in cost and efficiency.