EMEA News
Rotterdam Conventional Bunker Demand Slips to One-Year Low as LNG Hits 21-Month High
The Port of Rotterdam, the world's second-largest marine fuels hub, saw a mixed performance for its bunker sales in the second quarter of 2022, with conventional and biofuel sales slipping to the lowest level in a year while LNG demand surged.
The Northwest European port saw a conventional bunkers and biofuel blends total of 2.57 million mt in the second quarter, the port authority said in an emailed statement on Tuesday. The total was down by 2.6% from the previous three months, up by 5.4% on the year and the lowest level since the second quarter of 2022.
VLSFO sales slipped by 1.5% on the year to 906,368 mt, the lowest level since the fourth quarter of 2019, when 0.50% sulfur fuels were just emerging as a new market.
HSFO surged by 17.9% on the year to 847,189 mt, ULSFO jumped by 16.7% to 220,777 mt, MGO lost 6% to 253,748 mt and MDO dropped by 9.3% to 151,124 mt.
Biofuel blend sales jumped by 10.2% on the year to 185,824 mt, the most since the fourth quarter of 2022. The port authority does not specify the biofuel content of these blends, and in most cases conventional fuel will take up the majority of the content.
Singapore, the world's largest bunkering hub, saw conventional and biofuel blend sales advance by 2.8% on the quarter and 9.9% on the year to 12.7 million mt in the second quarter.
LNG
Rotterdam's LNG sales saw much healthier demand in the second quarter. Sales jumped by 108.9% on the quarter and 60.4% on the year to 179,804 m3 in Q2, the most since the third quarter of 2021.
Global gas prices started to jump in late 2021 on concern over potential conflict in Ukraine, and surged after Russia launched its full invasion in February 2022 with traders speculating the Western response would involve sanctions that could block Russian gas exports from reaching European markets.
But with the European gas market managing to increase imports from elsewhere to meet its heating and power needs last winter, prices have since come down sharply, trading recently at a discount to VLSFO at Rotterdam.
Shipping firms with dual-fuelled vessels capable of running on both conventional fuels and LNG almost universally switched to using conventional bunkers last year, and those that did not were largely required to for contractual or regulatory reasons.
But this year the LNG bunker market has seen a return as these ships resume taking on gas.
Prices
Rotterdam saw an average VLSFO price of $549/mt in the second quarter of 2023, according to Ship & Bunker data, down by 4% from the previous three months and by 36.8% from Q2 2022.
Singapore's average VLSFO price lost 5.3% on the quarter and 38.8% on the year to $589.50/mt in Q2. Ship & Bunker's G20-VLSFO Index of prices across 20 leading bunkering locations lost 7.2% on the quarter and 38.6% on the year to $602/mt in Q2.
