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Leading Chinese supplier China Marine Bunker (PetroChina) Co. Ltd. (Chimbusco) is due to begin supplying 500-centistoke (cst) bonded bunker fuel oil at the port of Qingdao later this year, ICIS reports.

According to a source at Chimbusco Qingdao, the company has already transported several thousand tonnes of 500-cst fuel oil to Qingdao port, located in Shandong Province, Eastern China.

Chimbusco began supplying 500-cst at the Guangdong Province port of Shenzhen during the second half of 2011, becoming the second company to supply the fuel grade, after Hong Kong-listed oil firm Brightoil Petroleum (Holdings) Ltd..

Demand for 500-cst product has been increasing at the ports of Shenzhen and Yangshan, with combined sales volume estimates for both ports currently at around 200,000 metric tonnes per year.

The rise in demand is considered to be mainly due to the lower cost of 500-cst fuel compared to 380-cst and because newly-built vessels are able to better cope with high-viscosity fuel oil.

Sales of 500-cst in Singapore during the month of February 2013 were 492,000 tonnes against total sales of 3,076,400 tonnes, representing 16 percent of overall sales at the world's leading bunker port.