EMEA News
Spain Bunker Volumes Drop 18% in November
November Bunker sales volumes in Spain have fallen 18.2% year over year to 479,459 mt, according to the latest official data.
Sequentially they are 15.5% lower than the 567,087 mt sold in the previous month.
Some Spanish ports faired better than others: Algeciras in November recorded a year over year increase of 11.3% to 158,972 mt, while Barcelona - no doubt hampered this year by the decline in cruise traffic - saw volumes fall 23.9% to 75,217 mt.
Las Palmas bunker sales in November were down 34.2% year over year to 129,539 mt.
For year over year comparisons it should be noted that November 2019 was an unusual month for marine fuel sales globally, as the industry juggled the timing of a final HSFO refulling for vessels before making the switch to IMO 2020 compliant product ready for January 1, 2020 onwards.
But 2020 has also been anything but normal with global bunker sales this year having declined overall due to the impact of measures taken to address the coronavirus pandemic.
Year to date sales in Spain are now down 18% at just under 6 million mt vs the 7.3 million mt sold in the 11 month period during 2019.
The data adds to a growing picture of bunker demand shift that took place during 2020, with the overall decline punctuated by regional winners and losers - as exampled by other ports that have recently reported their November sales figures.
Panama, for example, said its November 2020 sales were down 19%, while Singapore reported its sales were up 4.6%.
