Asia/Pacific News
Update: New Singapore Bunker Player in Talks to Buy Malaysian Physical Supplier
- Update 1 - An April 7 version of this story quoted a Platts article indicating a deal had already been done. Wee Tiong later confirmed to Ship & Bunker that discussions are still in progress.
Singapore-based sugar and rice commodities trading firm Wee Tiong (S) Pte Ltd (Wee Tiong), who recently announced it was entering the bunker market, is in talks over a potential deal to buy Malaysia-based bunker supplier Victory Supply Sdn Berhad (Victory Supply), the company has told Ship & Bunker.
A spokesperson for the company told Ship & Bunker that while it was indeed interested in Victory Supply's business model, and its team was looking into their business very closely, earlier reports indicating a deal had already been done were incorrect.
Victory Supply is reported to have five bunker barges, and handles about 80,000 metric tonnes (mt) of bunkers each month - a significant portion of the market given analyst estimates of monthly demand of around 120,000 mt per month at Port Klang.
Last week, Ship & Bunker reported that, despite what it described as "difficult" market conditions due to record low oil prices, slowing global demand, and economic uncertainty, Wee Tiong said it is "betting against odds and in a big way" by entering into the bunker trading market.
