Ships Face Fuel Delays at China’s Zhoushan on Supply Squeeze

By Bingyan Wang (Bloomberg) —

Ships are being forced to wait significantly longer to refuel at China’s top bunkering hub of Zhoushan, where the fallout from the US-Iran war has tightened supplies and pushed up prices.

Some vessels seeking to refuel at the port south of Shanghai are facing wait times of around one to two weeks, according to people familiar with the matter. That compares with just one to two days normally, they added, asking not to be named because they’re not authorized to speak to the media.

The delays reflect a combination of crude import constraints stemming from the Middle East conflict and a broader shift by Chinese refiners toward gasoline and diesel output to capture lucrative margins. That’s led to cuts in residual fuel oil production, squeezing supplies of so-called bunker fuel.

Ningbo Zhoushan Port didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. China starts a week-long national holiday on Thursday.

Spot prices for very low-sulfur bunker fuel sold at Zhoushan on Tuesday were near their highest level since March, in the early days of the Iran war, according to bunker data provider ClearLynx LLC. That’s more than 25% what the fuel is selling for in Singapore, a competing bunkering hub in Asia.

China’s state-owned refiners produced 1.12 million tons of low-sulfur fuel oil in August, a 13% decline from July, according to data from energy information provider JLC. Tightness in the fuel oil market is expected to ease in early October, primarily driven by a seasonal demand pullback, while bunkering activity across several Chinese ports is set to slow during the holiday.

Beijing has long sought to build Zhoushan into a regional bunkering hub to rival Singapore, though the city-state still remains the clear leader for ship refueling. China introduced a fuel oil tax rebate to offer competitive prices to attract Asia-bound commercial fleets while encouraging domestic refiners to boost low-sulfur fuel oil output.

© 2026 Bloomberg L.P.

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