The growth of China's LNG-powered vessels has mainly been hindered by the lack of enough basic supporting facilities, and immature business models, a domestic shipping news portal reported.

Currently, the relatively urgent problem is how to form a mature business model which can attract more people to participate in the LNG-powered vessel field, said Zhang Weiguo, president of Shanghai-based LNG Power Shipping Co., Ltd., noting that the country's infrastructures for LNG-powered ships like LNG filling stations will certainly be improved sooner or later amid China's great promotion of green energies.

LNG-powered ships entail much higher construction costs than those propelled by conventional fuels. It is worth noting that fiscal subsidies only occupy about 30 percent of the total construction cost, according to the report.