Singapore marine fuel January sales at 1-year high, HSFO demand jumps

SINGAPORE: January sales of marine fuels in Singapore jumped to a one-year high of 4.503 million tonnes as the number of bunkering calls at the shipping hub increased, the latest official data showed.

The January sales volumes in Singapore, the world's top marine refuelling hub, were up by 5% from December but were 0.3% below the two-year high of 4.515 million tonnes recorded in January last year, according to data from the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA).

The January volumes were supported by a seasonal spike in demand ahead of the Lunar New Year celebrations in China and parts of Asia in February, trade sources said.

The number of ships calling at the Singapore hub for bunkering rose to a six-month high of 3,593 in January, lifting an average of 1,253 tonnes of fuel, according to the data. This compared with 3,377 bunkering calls in December lifting an average of 1,270 tonnes.

Total sales of low-sulphur fuel climbed to a 10-month high of 3.373 million tonnes in January, Reuters calculations showed.

However, the share of low-sulphur fuel sold in Singapore fell to 75% of overall volumes in January, following a jump in demand for high-sulphur fuel oil (HSFO) with a maximum 3.5% sulphur content.

Overall HSFO demand climbed to a 13-month high of 1.13 million tonnes in January, its highest since December 2019 ahead of the new global shipping rules that capped the sulphur content in marine fuels at 0.5% from the start of 2020, as more ships fitted with scrubbers, or exhaust cleaning systems, became operational.

The latest demand figures underscore the rapid recovery in ship refuelling activities at the Singapore hub to above pre-pandemic levels due to a strong demand for container shipping, the availability of diverse and reliable marine fuels as well as flexible crew change rules, which many ports had curbed to contain the spread of COVID-19, trade sources said.

More than 100,000 crew changes have been carried out in Singapore during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the MPA said in a statement on Monday.

Given the importance of ensuring international trade and the flow of supplies, the "MPA continues to facilitate crew changes for ships of all flags and crew of various nationalities through a 'safe corridor'," the MPA said.