Singapore Marine Fuel Sales at 5-month High

Singapore marine fuel sales in October climbed 3 percent on year to a five-month high of 4.125 million tonnes, according to data released by the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) on Tuesday.

The latest sales volumes were 0.3 percent higher compared to September, it showed. The higher October sales volumes reflect a slight increase in the number of ships coming to Singapore for refuelling, or bunkering, amid buoyant freight trade and easing concerns of contaminated fuels, trade sources said.

The number of ships that called for bunkers in Singapore, the world's largest marine refuelling hub, rose to a six-month high of 3,340 ships in October, compared with 3,310 ships in September, MPA data showed.

However, vessels calling at Singapore for bunkers loaded slightly lower quantities of fuel in October, with each ship taking on an average 1,235 tonnes, a three-month low and below the monthly average of 1,270 tonnes so far this year.

However despite the higher October sales volumes, expectations of achieving record bunker fuel sales for a fourth straight year in 2018 have been scaled back as year-to-date sales volumes lagged the record quantities seen in the year before.

Singapore marine fuel sales in the first 10 months of 2018 totalled 41.585 million tonnes, down 1 percent from the record 42.024 million tonnes sold in the same period last year, MPA data showed.

On average, Singapore would have to report sales volumes of 4.526 million tonnes in the last two months of this year to match the record 50.636 million tonnes sold in 2017. Singapore's monthly sales volumes have averaged 4.158 million tonnes since the start of the year.
   
FUEL TYPES

• Sales of emission control areas-compliant low-sulphur marine gas oil climbed to a record 143,000 tonnes in October, up 47 percent from a year ago and 8 percent higher from September.
• Sales of the 380-centistoke (cst) high-sulphur fuel oil climbed to a six-month high of 2.992 million tonnes in October, 2 percent lower than a year earlier but 0.4 percent higher than the previous month.
• Sales of the less costly high-viscosity 500-cst marine fuel slipped to a seven-month low of 835,000 tonne in October, up 20 percent from a year ago but 1 percent lower than the previous month.

• Sales of the lower-viscosity 180-cst fuel were down to a two-month low of 24,000 tonnes in October.
  
  Reporting by Roslan Khasawneh