Titan to enter China’s marine fuel market

Titan Petrochemicals Group aims to enter China’s marine fuel market to help boost its sagging profits, as it grapples with a poor supertanker market. Titan, which sells about 200,000 tons of bunker fuel in Singapore and Hong Kong each month, is in the midst of securing a license to sell marine fuels in China and has ordered 10 double-hulled bunker barges for delivery from year-end. Chief Executive Barry Cheung said the Hong Kong-listed oil services said Titan is well poised to capitalize on the growth in container traffic and launch its foray into the Chinese market as it has stakes in storage facilities in Yangshan and in the growth areas of southern China. Titan expects to lease out most of the capacity in these terminals, drawing revenue from the rentals and accounting for about 35% of its operating profit by 2009, he said. (April 5, 2007)