Ships opt to bypass Singapore amid China port delays, hitting bunker fuel sales

Fewer container and bulk ships are calling at the city state to refuel, leading to bunker fuel sales falling to their lowest levels since 2016

Singapore is typically a refuelling stop for container ships passing through the Strait of Malacca as they take goods from Northeast Asia to Europe

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A container ship is refuelled at the dockside in Singapore in 2012. Photo: EPA

Published: 7:09pm, 18 Apr 2022

Container and bulk ships are skipping Asia’s largest refuelling hub in Singapore as delays at ports in China and elsewhere prompt vessels to reschedule their stops to save time.

A total of 3,020 ships called at the city state to refuel last month, 441 fewer than a year earlier, according to preliminary data released by the Maritime Port Authority. That has led to bunker fuel sales falling to 3.77 million tonnes in March, the lowest seasonally since 2016. Bunkering is the supplying of fuel for use by ships.

Fewer ships are stopping at Singapore as congestion at ports globally prompts companies to skip the transit hub between East and West.

Container ships and bulk carriers are seen in the shipping lanes off the coast of Singapore in 2012. Photo: Reuters

Shanghai’s lockdown to contain China’s worst Covid-19 outbreak since 2020 has created gridlock at the world’s largest container port, with queues of vessels building there and at other stops handling diverted shipments. The situation has put more pressure on already strained global supply chains.

Hundreds of bulk ships are waiting off East China to unload raw commodities and are likely to refuel in Guangzhou or Zhoushan instead of Singapore to save on time, traders said. Ships are “locked up waiting in congested areas” and are burning lots of fuel, Jeremy Nixon, chief executive officer of Ocean Network Express, said on April 5.

Singapore is typically a refuelling stop for container ships passing through the Strait of Malacca as they take goods from Northeast Asia to Europe. Bulk carriers transporting iron ore from South America to China and tankers carrying crude oil from the Middle East to Asia also pass the port.