Asia/Pacific News
Top 20 Bunker Supplier Aegean Completes Last Delivery in Singapore, Exists the Market as a Physical Player
Aegean Marine Petroleum Network Inc. [NYSE: ANW] (Aegean) Monday completed its final delivery in Singapore as a physical supplier and has now handed back its bunker supply and craft operator licences to the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA), the global supplier said today.
"Aegean took the decision in October 2017 to announce to the market that we would exit physical supply in Singapore in January 2018," said group President, Jonathan Mcilroy.
"At the time, we gave our firm commitment to all of our contractual parties including oil suppliers, barge operators, clients and the authorities at the MPA that Aegean would perform fully on all of our commitments and that we would leave the Singapore market in a professional manner befitting our status as the largest independent supplier of bunker fuel worldwide. I am happy to say that we have fully honoured that commitment in every regard."
Aegean has been a player in Singapore for some 11 years and says in that time it has delivered over 14 million tonnes of bunker fuel, noting also it "retained an exemplary record with the MPA with regards to its operational standards."
But as Ship & Bunker previously reported, last October Mcilroy said it had taken the decision to exit the world's biggest bunker market following "extremely competitive" conditions in the bunkering market in general, and the Singapore market in particular.
"We had hoped that enforcement of mandatory mass flow meter (MFM)-equipped bunker barging in January [2017] would have driven commercial improvement in the Singapore market allowing Aegean to compete profitably. However, 2017 has seen heightened commercial pressures in Singapore, and as a result, management has determined that Aegean's resources can be more profitably deployed elsewhere," he said at the time.
Looking ahead, Aegean says it will retain a presence in Singapore with a team of five that will continue to support the group's customers in Asia and wider inbound enquiries to Singapore, as well as focus on back-to-back trading.
"Aegean has a broadly-based portfolio of top class Japanese, Korean, Taiwanese, Chinese and Singaporean customers and our office in Singapore will remain to support them and act as the hub for our network in Asia, which includes a presence in Seoul, Taipei and Shanghai," said Mcilroy.
MPA data released this week indicates Singapore sold a record 50.6 million mt of bunkers in 2017, beating the previous record of 48.6 million mt sold in 2016.
In both those years Aegean ranked as the 20th largest supplier by volume sold.
Aegean no longer appears MPA's official list of licensed bunker suppliers, which shows effective January 15, 2018 there are 54 physical suppliers operating in the port.
