OOCL Grace takes on 983 tonnes of green methanol at Yantian

CIMC Enric and SinoBunker have completed the supply of 983 tonnes of bonded green methanol to OOCL Grace at Yantian Port in Shenzhen, ahead of the vessel’s maiden commercial voyage. The bunkering took place on 29 October 2026, linking fuel produced in Guangdong with one of Orient Overseas Container Line’s (OOCL) newest methanol dual-fuel container ships.

CIMC Enric described the operation as Guangdong’s first direct cross-customs bonded green methanol supply to an internationally trading vessel. The milestone concerns the customs and supply arrangement, rather than the province’s first methanol bunkering operation.

How was the methanol supplied?

The fuel came from the Zhanjiang production facility of CIMC Green Energy Low Carbon Technology (Guangdong), a CIMC Enric subsidiary.

SinoBunker’s bunkering vessel Daqing 268 transferred the fuel to OOCL Grace. SinoBunker, formally China Shipping & Sinopec Suppliers, is a joint venture between COSCO Shipping Group and Sinopec Group.

According to CIMC Enric, the operation connected local production, bonded storage, direct supply across customs districts and vessel bunkering. The company plans to work with SinoBunker and other partners to expand production and storage capabilities supporting regular, larger-scale deliveries in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

Where does OOCL Grace fit in the fleet programme?

OOCL Grace is the second vessel in a series of seven 24,000 twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) methanol dual-fuel container ships being built for OOCL by Nantong COSCO KHI Ship Engineering.

The carrier held its naming ceremony at the shipyard on 28 August 2026. Annetta Duan, Global Logistics Director of Hayco Group, named the vessel.

At the ceremony, Peter Pan, OOCL’s Director of Trades and Executive Committee member, said the successive introduction of the ships would support changes to capacity deployment and the carrier’s service network. He also reiterated the company’s focus on fleet expansion, lower-emission operations and digitalisation.

The first vessel in the series, OOCL Wisdom, completed its initial green methanol bunkering at Qingdao Port and began its maiden voyage on 3 July 2026.

OOCL confirmed that OOCL Wisdom, with a maximum capacity of 24,168 TEUs, was deployed on its Asia–North Europe Loop 1 service. The Yantian operation adds a separate bunkering location to the fuel-supply arrangements supporting the carrier’s methanol fleet.

What production capacity supports the supply chain?

CIMC Enric’s Zhanjiang facility has a first-phase bio-methanol production capacity of 50,000 tonnes annually. In an October statement, parent company China International Marine Containers said the plant was supplying fuel for bunkering operations at major Chinese ports.

The company also reported that the plant’s products had obtained International Sustainability and Carbon Certification under the European Union scheme, known as ISCC EU. It stated that their lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions were more than 85% lower than the relevant comparison basis. This is a producer-reported fuel characteristic, rather than a measured emissions reduction for OOCL Grace’s voyage.

How is regional methanol bunkering developing?

The Yantian delivery follows an earlier operation involving the same supplier and bunker vessel at Guangzhou.

On 6 September 2026, Daqing 268 supplied 1,021 tonnes of pure bio-methanol from CIMC Enric to a methanol dual-fuel Ultramax bulk carrier at Guangzhou anchorage.

CIMC described that delivery as Guangzhou Port’s first ship-to-ship methanol bunkering operation. Together with earlier supplies in Shenzhen and Hong Kong, it formed part of the company’s development of a regional network connecting fuel production, storage, transport and delivery to ships.