Asia/Pacific News
SIBCON 2024: Mandatory e-BDNs Not Expected to Add Premium to Singapore Bunker Price
Singapore's bunker market is not expecting its newly-announced mandatory e-BDN system to add any noticeable amount to its bunker prices relative to competing ports.
The city-state's authorities announced last week that they would make e-BDNs obligatory for bunker deliveries in their waters from April 2025, following their use on a voluntary basis since November 2023.
The technology has proven popular so far -- Singapore's authorities claim the change will save the industry almost 40,000 man-days per year by eliminating cumbersome paper documentation -- and ZeroNorth told Ship & Bunker in March that it had rolled the service out to about 60 barges in Singapore already by that point.
The regulatory imposition is not expected by the local market to add any noticeable premium to the Singapore bunker price. One local market expert at Sibcon last week characterised the cost when considered per tonne of marine fuel delivered as 'negligible'.
Choong Sheen Mao, chief operating officer of Equatorial Marine Fuel Management Services, agreed with that assessment.
"I don't think customers will pay us more for using the e-BDNs," Choong told Ship & Bunker on the sidelines of Sibcon on Thursday.
"But of course, the benefits are not really on price, but efficiency.
"People who use the e-BDNs will have to pay certain fees to the platform providers, but in terms of the price for bunkers, we don't see that going up."
Platform providers -- of which Singapore currently has a total of five on its white list -- typically charge bunker suppliers a one-off fee in the thousands of dollars to set the service up, followed by a monthly subscription charge per barge.
The introduction of e-BDNs was subsidised at first, with bunker suppliers successfully applying for a grant from Singapore's MPA before the end of March having half of their e-BDN cost paid for the first year after that.
