Arte Bunkering in International Expansion as Russian Market Falters

The company opened an office in Singapore in September. File Image / Pixabay

Marine fuel supplier Arte Bunkering has made a timely escape from this year's collapse in the Russian bunker market, with an international expansion widening its focus to more lucrative regions.

The company has opened two new offices this year, Seva Tkachenko, commercial manager at Arte Bunkering, said in an interview with Ship & Bunker.

Arte's new Singapore office was opened in September. The company currently has two traders there, and may look to hire one or two more in the first half of next year.

The company has also launched an operation in Greece, again with two traders at present and plans to hire one or two more in the first half of 2021.

Arte Bunkering now serves more than 3,000 ships per year, according to its website.

"At the moment we've got no plans for additional physical locations next year -- but never say never," Tkachenko said.

Russian Decline

Arte was founded in Tallinn in 2010 with an initial focus on the Russian and Baltic markets.

The advent of IMO 2020 and changes in Russian taxation on oil products have come as a huge challenge to Russian markets, with suppliers there now unable to offer VLSFO at the same discounts to Rotterdam's levels as they used to be able to offer HSFO.

VLSFO at St Petersburg was $12/mt lower than Rotterdam's level on Friday, according to Ship & Bunker pricing, compared with an HSFO discount of $66.50/mt at the same time last year.

Bunker demand in St Petersburg was as low as 80,000 mt in October, according to local market sources, down from about 200,000 mt in the same month of 2019.

Arte's international expansion came partly as a result of foreseeing these difficulties, Tkachenko said.

"We've distanced ourselves quite a bit from the Russian ports now; we've grown out of it," he said.

"It became clear to us several years ago that the Russian market was not going to be as competitive as it used to be.

"However, we remain in a strong position as previously for the Russian ports; us diversifying our regions of trading doesn't mean we've dropped our initial focus area."