Americas News
Panama July Bunker Sales Lose 30% on Year
Panama is the latest market to report another sharp drop in bunker demand as July sales continued to trend significantly lower than 2019's levels, according to preliminary data from the Panama Maritime Authority (AMP), but recovered somewhat from June's low.
Total demand dropped to 337,0350 mt last month, down by 30% from July 2019 but up by 11.5% from June 2020's level.
The number of ships arriving in Panama for bunker fuel sank by 23% on the year to 386 in July, meaning the average stem size fell by 9.1% to about 873 mt.
Panama's VLSFO sales advanced by 13.1% from June's levels to 258,429 mt in July, according to the AMP data, while high sulfur fuel oil sales gained 13.7% to 42,036 mt.
Marine gasoil surged by 53% on the month to 10,218 mt, and low sulfur marine gasoil declined by 12.6% to 26,352 mt.
Global bunker demand has fallen sharply in many ports following measures put in place to address the COVID-19 pandemic, with Spain earlier this month reporting a similar decline.
