China is likely to see bitumen demand climb to 17-mil mt in 2010, predicted a senior official with PetroChina Fuel Oil Co.
Mr. Li Jiu Jie, Deputy General Manager of the company made a speech in the Bitumen Network Asian 2010 held by C1 Energy on Mar 8. The bitumen consumption will break record in 2010, the last year of the government's "11th Five Year Plan" period (2006-2010) and the year of national check-up for the transport department, Mr. Li reckoned. He said the major growth point is shifting to the central and west regions from the east region this year and the supply gap in the future will be seen in Central, Southwest and North China.
The price trend will stay optimistic this year with the favorable factors like bullish crude futures expectation, explosive demand, and ease monetary policy overwhelm the unfavorable factors like outrageous bitumen prices, rising spot supply and anticipating increased output, Mr Li said.
He expected domestic bitumen consumption will go up to 17.80-mil mt in 2011, and may advance to 18-mil mt in 2015 based on the country's investment plans for highway construction and the length of highways to open to traffic under planning.
Additionally, Mr Li projected demand for emulsified bitumen will rise rapidly in the future because of the government's high investment in high-speed rail. China will construct 13,000 kilometers of such rail and the length of rail designed with speed of 200 kilometers/hour or over will surplus 18,000 kilometers, which will account for half of that of the whole world, Mr. Li pointed out.
PetroChina Fuel Oil Co has four bitumen plants, which are PetroChina Gaofu Petroleum Co, PetroChina Qinhuangdao Bitumen Factory, Wenzhou PetroChina Fuel Chemical Co and Jiangsu PetroChina Xingneng Bitumen Co. All of the output from underlying plants is sold under the name of "Kunlun". With production capacity is over 5-mil mt/yr, it yielded 4.62-mil mt of bitumen in 2009.
