China’s largest state-owned shipping conglomerate Cosco Group has managed to achieve significant fuel savings and lower the age profile of its fleet over the last couple of years, according to Ma Zehua, the group’s chairman of the board.

Ma said in an interview to the local media that Cosco has slashed its bunker fuel bills by approximately $400m in 2014 compared to the previous year.

“In the past, we had 10 containerships heading to Europe, sailing at a fast speed and using up a lot of fuel. After adding more ships to the route and reducing the vessel speed, we have greatly cut down on the use of fuel and lower our operating expenditure as well,” he said.

In the last two years, Cosco had also lowered its overall fleet age to 10.38 years from 14.2 years by scrapping older tonnages and bringing in new ships, Ma added.