Overview

Demand at key marine fuel hubs dropped by 4.7% in the first quarter of 2021 from the IMO 2020 peak a year earlier, but climbed from the levels seen at the end of 2020, according to a market survey of bunker sales volumes in 17 leading global locations.

As in previous quarters, Ship & Bunker in conjunction with consultancy BLUE Insight surveyed bunker market participants around the world alongside official data where available and found an average drop of 4.7% in volumes in the first quarter from the same period of 2020. The year-on-year drop has eased significantly from the 9.4% fall seen in the fourth quarter of last year, and Q1 volumes sequentially were 2.4% higher than in Q4 2020.

"While container bunker demand appears to be setting records in most of the major container ports, the picture in non-container ports is not so rosy," Adrian Tolson, director of BLUE Insight, told Ship & Bunker on Tuesday.

"Other shipping activity, such as that involving bulk carriers and tankers, remains slow, and for some activity like cruise vessels is non-existent.

"This is creating major demand challenges in smaller ports and limiting the 'return to normal' in the bigger ports."

Methodology

The areas covered by the survey are Singapore, the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) hub, Fujairah, the US Gulf, South Korea, Russia, the Gibraltar Strait, Hong Kong, Panama, Zhoushan, Japan, New York, West Africa, South Africa, the Canary Islands, Los Angeles/Long Beach and Turkey. This group now includes Russia for the first time.

Together these areas saw just over 134 million mt of demand in 2020, meaning they cover around half of current global demand.

But because the areas covered by the survey include some of the top bunkering areas in the world, the global drop shown is likely to be less steep than that seen for total demand. The effect of demand tending to congregate at bunkering hubs last year has left the world's smaller ports with sharper declines.

The survey covers only conventional marine fuels.

Individual Market Volumes & Commentary

Singapore

• Q1 2021 XXX million mt
• Q1 2020 XXX million mt
• Q4 2020 XXX million mt
• Year-on-year change XXX%
• Quarter-on-quarter change XXX%

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ARA 

• Q1 2021 XXX million mt
• Q1 2020 XXX million mt
• Q4 2020 XXX million mt
• Year-on-year change XXX%
• Quarter-on-quarter change XXX%

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Gibraltar Strait

• Q1 2021 XXX million mt
• Q1 2020 XXX million mt
• Q4 2020 XXX million mt
• Year-on-year change XXX%
• Quarter-on-quarter change XXX%

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Fujairah

• Q1 2021 XXX million mt
• Q1 2020 XXX million mt
• Q4 2020 XXX million mt
• Year-on-year change XXX%
• Quarter-on-quarter change XXX%

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US Gulf

• Q1 2021 XXX million mt
• Q1 2020 XXX million mt
• Q4 2020 XXX million mt
• Year-on-year change XXX%
• Quarter-on-quarter change XXX%

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South Korea

• Q1 2021 XXX million mt
• Q1 2020 XXX million mt
• Q4 2020 XXX million mt
• Year-on-year change XXX%
• Quarter-on-quarter change XXX%

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Russia

• Q1 2021 XXX million mt
• Q1 2020 XXX million mt
• Q4 2020 XXX million mt
• Year-on-year change XXX%
• Quarter-on-quarter change XXX%

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Hong Kong

• Q1 2021 XXX million mt
• Q1 2020 XXX million mt
• Q4 2020 XXX million mt
• Year-on-year change XXX%
• Quarter-on-quarter change XXX%

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Panama

• Q1 2021 XXX million mt
• Q1 2020 XXX million mt
• Q4 2020 XXX million mt
• Year-on-year change XXX%
• Quarter-on-quarter change XXX%

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Zhoushan

• Q1 2021 XXX million mt
• Q1 2020 XXX million mt
• Q4 2020 XXX million mt
• Year-on-year change XXX%
• Quarter-on-quarter change XXX%

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Japan

• Q1 2021 XXX million mt
• Q1 2020 XXX million mt
• Q4 2020 XXX million mt
• Year-on-year change XXX%
• Quarter-on-quarter change XXX%

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New York

• Q1 2021 XXX million mt
• Q1 2020 XXX million mt
• Q4 2020 XXX million mt
• Year-on-year change XXX%
• Quarter-on-quarter change XXX%

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LA/Long Beach

• Q1 2021 XXX million mt
• Q1 2020 XXX million mt
• Q4 2020 XXX million mt
• Year-on-year change XXX%
• Quarter-on-quarter change XXX%

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West Africa

• Q1 2021 XXX million mt
• Q1 2020 XXX million mt
• Q4 2020 XXX million mt
• Year-on-year change XXX%
• Quarter-on-quarter change XXX%

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Canary Islands

• Q1 2021 XXX million mt
• Q1 2020 XXX million mt
• Q4 2020 XXX million mt
• Year-on-year change XXX%
• Quarter-on-quarter change XXX%

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Turkey

• Q1 2021 XXX million mt
• Q1 2020 XXX million mt
• Q4 2020 XXX million mt
• Year-on-year change XXX%
• Quarter-on-quarter change XXX%

Individual market commentaries are only available to subscribers. Click here to learn more and get instant access from just $59. Existing subscribers can sign in here.

South Africa

• Q1 2021 XXX million mt
• Q1 2020 XXX million mt
• Q4 2020 XXX million mt
• Year-on-year change XXX%
• Quarter-on-quarter change XXX%

Individual market commentaries are only available to subscribers. Click here to learn more and get instant access from just $59. Existing subscribers can sign in here.