Mixed Picture for Gibraltar Strait Bunker Demand

by Ship & Bunker News Team
Thursday October 29, 2020

There was a mixed picture for bunker demand in the Gibraltar Strait last month, with steep declines for the Spanish ports of Algeciras and Ceuta while bunker calls to Gibraltar itself climbed on the year.

Gibraltar itself saw 412 ships arriving to take bunkers in September, the port authority reported this week, down from 422 in August but up from 399 in September 2019.

Meanwhile Algeciras had bunker sales of 159,095 mt in September, down by 18.6% from the same month a year earlier, according to the latest Spanish statistics. Sales at Ceuta sank by 43% on the year to 35,031 mt.

The split may be down to the differing conditions of the shipping segments, with Algeciras taking mostly container traffic while Gibraltar sees more visits from tankers.