China’s ministry of transport has outlined details of its planned emission control areas which will now come into effect on January 1, 2019.

Vessels calling in Chinese waters will need to do so with fuel with less than 0.5% sulphur in just over two years time.

Moreover, taking a leaf out of Hong Kong’s pioneering emission cutting efforts, a voluntary scheme will kick off at 11 ports starting on January 1 next year.

Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Zhujiang, Shanghai, Ningbo-Zhoushan, Suzhou, Nantong, Tianjin, Qinhuangdao, Tangshan and Huanghua have been selected for this voluntary scheme.

By the end of 2019, Beijing will then take a further decision as to whether or not to slash the cap to just 0.1% sulphur content.

Chinese authorities are acutely aware of its citizens growing anger at the dreadful state of air quality in the People’s Republic. As a result sweeping changes are taking place across many industries. Many Chinese ports are looking at installing shore power for ships while the government is promoting the use of LNG as a ship fuel with the Yangtze serving as a petri dish for this experiment with a view to a national roll out of LNG bunkering infrastructure.

In a poll carried on this site three months ago, 55% of 643 voters believed a China-wide ECA would change shipping forever.