EMEA News
Istanbul Bunker Demand, Marine Traffic Rising Earlier than Expected
Marine traffic in the waters of Istanbul is making an earlier than expected recovery from the COVID-induced slump of recent months, a local supplier says.
"On Thursday the number of ships waiting to pass the Bosphorus Strait is over 120," they told Ship & Bunker by email.
"In recent times is has been very much less, some days only in the tens of ships. Now we observe much better bunker demand in the area too."
Measures introduced earlier this year to address the Coronavirus pandemic have reduced both marine shipping and bunker demand world wide, with a recent Ship & Bunker market survey conducted in conjunction with consultancy BLUE Insight indicated global marine fuel sales volume in 2020 Q2 fell 9.3%.
Preliminary figures indicate Istanbul is on track to record 2.25 million mt of sales this year, down 10% from the 2.5 million mt sold last year. The country sold a record 3 million mt in 2018.
"This is not too bad considering many other ports have lost much more than Istanbul," the local supplier noted.
The Turkish market is served by six physical bunker suppliers who operate a total of 55 bunker barges.
