China will needs 40 to 50 additional jumbo oil tankers over the next five years due to the increase in the country's crude oil imports and exports, an industrial insider said on Thursday.

 

Henrik O. Madsen, President of Det Norske Veritas (DNV), one of the industry's main classification companies, predicted that China's ship-building capacity will quadruple by 2015, even becoming the largest in the world.

 

Since about 95 percent of international trade is done through shipping, China's fast-growing economy requires a tremendous commercial shipping team, Madsen said.

 

Meanwhile, he said that China still has a lot of work to do to improve energy efficiency and environmental protection.

 

He hopes DNV can strengthen cooperation with the Chinese government and enterprises in developing liquefied natural gas and wind power stations at sea and in risk management.

 

(Xinhua News Agency July 21, 2006)