Americas News
Panama Bunker Sales Lost 14.2% at Start of 2021
Panama's bunker sales started 2021 on a weak note, losing 14.2% from the highs of the IMO 2020 transition a year ago.
The country saw total bunker sales of 409,767 mt last month, according to the latest data from the Panama Maritime Authority, down from 477,339 mt in the same month a year earlier.
The decline is partly explained by the artificially high levels in January 2020, when shipping companies were stockpiling the new VLSFO blends on concerns about availability problems.
Panama's dependence on bulker and tanker activity is also likely to have been behind much of the drop, with shipping activity from these segments the worst-hit by the pandemic and the subsequent economic turmoil.
Higher fees for using the Panama Canal may also have prompted some to avoid it altogether where possible in favour of longer routes.
The number of ships arriving at Panama's ports for bunkers in January saw a steep decline from a year earlier, losing 23% to 558. This took the average stem size 11.5% higher on the year to 734 mt.
VLSFO sales were 288,864 mt, down by 25.6% from January 2020's levels, and HSFO sales gained 229.5% on the year to 70,597 mt.
HSFO represented 17.2% of total demand in January, up from just 4.5% a year earlier.
MGO sales lost 79.4% on the year to 12,216 mt in January, and low-sulfur MGO rose by 359% to 30,090 mt.
