Bloomberg: China Rivals Global Leaders for Oil Shipments

“China expanded its share of global crude oil shipments in 2011, with government-owned trader China International United Petroleum & Chemical Corp. rivaling Royal Dutch Shell Plc, currently the world’s largest charterer. The Chart of the Day shows how oil-tanker bookings by the Chinese company, known as Unipec, for single-voyage, or spot, cargoes have grown to 7.8 percent of the world’s total orders, from 1.8 percent in 2006. During the same period, Shell’s share of bookings dropped to 8.7 percent from 9.9 percent, according to data compiled by shipbroker Poten & Partners Inc. Shell hired 661 tankers and Unipec 586 last year, Poten’s data show.”