China Refueling Station Market

China Refueling Station Industry Report, 2011-2012

In 2011, there are more than 1,400 natural gas vehicle refueling stations in over 80 cities throughout 30 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities of China. LNG refueling stations have attracted the greatest attention, of which skid-mounted ones have achieved the rapidest development. In 2011, the number of skid-mounted LNG refueling stations reached 330 in China.

Since 2010, most regions in Chinese mainland have sped up the construction of natural gas refueling stations. For instance, Xinjiang will build up 464 refueling stations, 1 reserve depot, 1 peak-shaving station, 8 LNG plants and 10 CNG primary fueling stations in 2010-2015.

When it comes to refueling station operators, CNPC, Sinopec and CNOOC, China’s three oil giants, are accelerating their expansion. CNPC plans to set up 126 LNG refueling stations in Henan Province, 122 LNG refueling stations along the “five vertical and three horizontal” national and provincial highways and 720 LNG refueling stations in Shandong Province by the end of 2015. CNOOC plans to complete the construction of 1,000 LNG refueling stations in 2011-2015.

In terms of refueling station constructors, domestic enterprises have developed rapidly in the past two years. Presently, Zhangjiagang Furui Special Equipment, Chengdu Huaqi Houpu Machine Electricity Technology and Yantai Jereh Oilfield Services Group have witnessed significant growth in the market share of their products, but they still rely on imports for some key equipment. Foreign-funded companies such as Chart Industries have boosted their layout in Chinese mainland since 2005, and by virtue of high product quality and strong after-sales support, their product prices are higher than those of domestic enterprises.