Singapore, the world’s largest bunker port, sold record volumes of fuel since Yemen-based Houthi militia started attacking cargo ships in the Red Sea in November 2023.
Sales exceeded one million barrels per day for the first time since at least 2018, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA).
Official data from the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore, shows a year-on-year increase in bunker fuel sales from December 2023 to the first quarter of 2024.
Sales reached an all-time high in December 2023, when 5.05 million tonnes of bunker fuel was sold, the most since 1995.
More bunker fuel is sold in Singapore than in any other port.
Available data from the port authority shows that 527 tonnes more bunkering fuel was sold in January this year than last year, an increase of 12%.
For February the rise was 712 tonnes, almost 19% more than a year before. In March the increase was 266 000 tonnes, or 6.4%. Provisional sales for April are slightly lower than in 2023.
The number of cargo and tanker ships passing through the Suez Canal has decreased by more than half compared with the same time period a year ago, from around 75 vessels to 35, according to data from the International Monetary Fund’s PortWatch tool.
Many of the new routes shippers are taking to avoid the Red Sea involve rounding the Cape of Good Hope, which can add several thousand miles and two to three weeks of travel time, compared with a voyage transiting the Red Sea, depending on origin and destination.
A recent Reuters analysis has found that the Red Sea crisis has upped shipping CO2 levels by between 26% and a third, and many multinationals have resorted to airfreight and different supply chains in order to avoid the additional cost brought on by the crisis.
