S&B ANALYSIS: World's Biggest Bunker Companies Grew Market Share in 2022

by Jack Jordan, Managing Editor & Martyn Lasek, Managing Director, Ship & Bunker
Friday March 10, 2023

Many of the world's largest bunker companies increased their sales volume in 2022, with data indicating this likely also translated into an increase in market share.

Among those seeing improved bunker sales were TFG Marine with a rise of 25% to 10 million mt, World Fuel Services, up 4% to 19.1 million mt, Minerva with an increase of around 6% to 16.5 million mt, Monjasa, up 12% to 6.4 million mt, Fratelli Cosulich, with a gain of 9% to 6 million mt, and Alpha Trading, up 9% to 3.5 million mt.

The firms are all listed in Ship & Bunker's Top Ten Bunker Companies report that this week has been updated for 2023 and includes each firm's 2022 annual sales volume.

Bunker Holding inevitably remains in a dominant position at the top of the list with annual volumes little changed on the year at about 30 million mt.

Overall the companies covered by the report sold 119.7 million mt in 2022, an increase of 4% over their sales in 2021.

The analysis highlights that the leading bunker companies continue to reinforce their significance in the market, with overall global volumes unlikely to have grown at the same pace in 2022.

While official IMO data for global bunker sales is not yet available for 2022, for 2021 it put the overall size of the global bunker market at about 224.8 million mt.

All indications are that 2022 volumes will likely be flat, if not a little lower than this, with Ship & Bunker and BLUE Insight's market survey at 17 leading bunkering locations showing an overall global decline of 2.6% in bunker volumes in the first three quarters of 2022 from a year earlier.

Even taking into account that a proportion of the Top 10 Bunker Companies' sales will not be to end users, they likely still represent at least half of global bunker sales to end users of fuel.

Interestingly, while the names of the 10 largest players may have changed from a decade ago, the 50% figure seems to have remained.

Still, it is a far cry from the mid 2000's when the 'big 10' were considered to control around 20-25% of the market.

To view the report in full, click here.

About Jack Jordan

Jack Jordan

Jack Jordan is the Managing Editor of Ship & Bunker, the world’s most read marine fuel-focused publication.

He is an experienced financial editor and reporter with a first-class degree in Arabic and Russian, a postgraduate diploma in newspaper journalism and several years' history of covering the oil and shipping industries and capital markets.

Jack is based in London, UK.

About Martyn Lasek

Martyn is the Founder and Managing Director of Ship & Bunker, the world’s most read marine fuel-focused publication.

With a career building information systems and online publishing spanning over 20 years, he has been providing critical information to the bunker industry since 2002.

Martyn is based in Vancouver, Canada.

About Ship & Bunker

Ship & Bunker is the world's most read publication focused on the marine fuel markets. Completely independent, it is the leading industry authority providing comprehensive daily news, exclusive in-depth features and analysis, along with daily & historical bunker price indications.

To contact the editor responsible for this story email us at editor@shipandbunker.com