World News
The End of Legacy Yahoo Messenger: The Bunker Industry Says It's Moving to Skype
Skype is winning the battle to replace Yahoo as the messenger of choice within the bunker industry.
As Ship & Bunker previously reported, from August 5, 2016, Yahoo Inc. (Yahoo) will no longer support the "legacy" Yahoo Messenger (YM) platform in use across the industry today.
In a Ship & Bunker poll responded to by over 550 readers from around the globe, Skype was the most popular choice with 37 percent of the vote.
Aegean Marine Petroleum Network Inc. (Aegean), Energy Petrol, Adani Bunkering, and Curoil are among several bunker companies that have told Ship & Bunker they have chosen to switch to Skype as their primary messaging app.
While most look like they will be using at least Skype, the reality stressed by most players is that, depending on their client's needs, it will be important for them to support a number of other messaging systems.
QQ Messenger, for instance, will continue to see usage in the Asia markets.
"However customers want to communicate with us, we will accommodate as they are our priority," Peninsula Petroleum told Ship & Bunker, while KPI Bridge Oil said it had already been using Skype across its group "for some time" in conjunction with Yahoo and other platforms, and would continue to do so.
Ship & Bunker's poll saw WhatsApp attract 30 percent of the vote, with Oilchart UK and Endofa among those who noted they were using the app alongside Skype and others.
One South Asia supplier said that on a mobile platform, WhatsApp was much more reliable for them compared to Skype.
Peninsula Petroleum and Ocean Connect Marine (OCM) were among a smaller number of players who said they will be supporting ICE Instant Messaging (ICE IM), and in the case of OCM, its parent Glencore recently announced it was choosing ICE IM for its primary messaging service.
"I think we will see some separation of the bunker guys with the commodity houses," one Ship & Bunker source suggested.
Key Bunker Prices More
| VLSFO | MGO | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $/mt | +/- | $/mt | +/- | |
| Singapore | 645.00 | 2.00 | 767.50 | 11.50 |
| Rotterdam | 600.00 | 8.00 | 751.50 | 13.00 |
| Houston | 627.50 | 9.00 | 796.00 | 11.50 |
| Fujairah | 649.50 | 0.00 | 889.00 | 0.50 |
| Global 20 Ports Average | 665.00 | 0.50 | 864.00 | 6.50 |
| Global 4 Ports Average | 630.50 | 5.00 | 801.00 | 9.00 |
| Global Average Bunker Price | 722.50 | 2.50 | 922.50 | 3.00 |
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