On 4 December 2015, the Chinese government announced that it designated the Pearl River Delta, the Yangtze River Delta and the Bohai Rim waters as the emission control areas, and the limit for sulphur content of fuel oils used onboard ships operating within the aforementioned emission control areas will start to be strengthened to 0.5% m/m.

The URL for the official announcement from the Chinese government is as follows. (In Chinese only)
http://www.moc.gov.cn/zfxxgk/bzsdw/bhsj/201512/t20151204_1942434.html

The outline of the regulation is as follows:

1. Applicable ships
Ships voyaging, berthing and operating within the emission control areas excluding military ships, sports ships and fishery ships

2. Emission control areas
The Pearl River Delta, the Yangtze River Delta and the Bohai Rim waters as described in the Attachment 1 are designated as emission control areas subject to this regulation. In addition, the following 11 ports in these emission control areas are designated as "core port areas" for implementation of the regulation.

Pearl River Delta: Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Zhuhai
Yangtze River Delta: Shanghai, Ningbo-Zhoushan, Suzhou and Nantong
Bohai Rim: Tianjin, Qinhuangdao, Tangshan and Huanghua

3. Contents of the regulation
(1) Starting on 1 January 2016, ports in the emission control areas can require ships at berth to use fuel oils whose sulphur content does not exceed 0.5% m/m.*
(2) Starting on 1 January 2017, ships berthing at core port areas within the emission control areas are required to use fuel oils whose sulphur content does not exceed 0.5% m/m (except for the first hour after arrival and the last hour prior to departure)

(To be continued)