Singapore bunker sales hold steady

Latest reports from Singapore show bunker sales in December barely altered year-on year, despite the slowdown in global trade.

Singapore's maritime and port sector “defied economic gravity” in the second half of 2008, according to the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA).

The total volume of bunkers sold in the Port of Singapore reached a new record in 2008 when it hit 34.9 million metric tonnes (mt) as of the end December, it said in a statement on Thursday.

2008’s sales surpassed 2007’s figures by 10.7%.

It went on:  The port of Singapore has retained its global lead in vessel arrival tonnage, containers handled, and bunkers lifted, while the Singapore registry of ships is currently the fourth largest in the world.

The MPA has yet to publish detailed bunker sales statistics for December, but based on figures available for the first 11 months of the year the newly released annual total means some 2.7 million mt of marine fuel was sold in the port last month.

If that is confirmed, December's sales will have been close to the 2.73 million mt sold in the final month of 2007.

The MPA said vessel arrivals, in terms of shipping tonnage reached, 1.6 billion gross tons (GT) in 2008, an increase of some 11.1% from the record set in 2007.

Container ships were the top contributors, accounting for 36.5% of the total vessel arrival tonnage.  Tankers came in a close second, contributing 29.9% to the total figure.

Container traffic in 2008 hit 29.9 million twenty-foot equivalent Units (TEUs), a 7.1% increase from the 27.9 million TEUs handled in 2007.

Total cargo tonnage handled by the Port of Singapore in 2008 was up 6.5% year-on-year to reach 515.3 million mt. 

 

Source: http://www.portworld.com