In May, cargo ship arrivals in the global top transshipment and bunkering hub Singapore slumped to reach the lowest level in 27 years. The sales of marine fuels were also weighed down to a three-month low.
Data from the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) showed the number of cargo ships calling in Singapore hub went down to 3,059, the lowest since at least January 1993.
Bunker fuel sales in the hub also down due to the slowing trade activity, by 2% year-on-year and 5% month-on-month to 3.925 million tonnes last month.
Reuters’ calculations showed the average bunker loadings slipped to a five-month low in May at 1,206 tonnes/ship, down from 1,285 tonnes in April and 1,208 tonnes in May 2019.
Year-to-date, marine fuel sales in the country still up by 5% year-on-year at 20.76 million tonnes.
Going forward, Singapore’s trade minister Chan Chun Sing said that the pace of planned extensions to the country’s ports would depend on future demand as the pandemic slaughters the trade-reliant economy.
On the first of June, the count of blank sailings have surged with the total pandemic-induced blanked capacity nearing 4 million twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU), said shipping analysis company Sea-Intelligence.
