Asia/Pacific News
Reports: Sri Lanka Sees June Bunker Sales Double
Despite weak petroleum prices, growing shipping traffic at Sri Lanka's ports has resulted in a doubling of the country's monthly bunker fuel sales for June compared to a year ago, according to a report by Colombo-based Economy Next citing data from Sri Lanka's central bank.
"Export of petroleum products increased owing to a more than two-fold growth in bunker fuel volume," stated the central bank.
While bunker fuel prices fell by over 50 percent, central bank data reportedly shows that petroleum exports in June increased by 82.6 percent to $48.3 million compared to the previous year.
Additionally, during the first six months of 2015, petroleum product exports are said to have risen by 21.6 percent to $224.1 million.
The growth is said to largely be due to the opening of a new deep-water terminal at Colombo, which has led to new services and calls by bigger ships.
Earlier this month, it was reported that the number of vessels calling at Colombo for the first six months of 2015 increased by 12.7 percent, and cargo tonnage increased by 2.8 percent over the same time period.
