Singapore has for several decades been the world’s largest conventional bunker port, with sales roughly five times the size of those at Rotterdam, the second-largest, according to Ship & Bunker.
But it has been slower to develop an alternative fuels market, with Rotterdam previously taking the lead on both biofuel bunker blends and LNG as a marine fuel.
As of the third quarter of this year, Singapore has overtaken Rotterdam on biofuel bunker sales for the first time.
Rotterdam’s biofuel sales dropped to 137,175 mt in the third quarter, down by 41.4% from the previous quarter and by 25.1% on the year. Meanwhile Singapore’s jumped to 227,000 mt, up by 26.4% from the previous quarter and by 67.5% on the year.
“Strong sales of bioblended bunkers in Singapore could be one of the reasons for this decline [in Rotterdam],” Ronald Backers, head of liquid bulk business intelligence at the Port of Rotterdam, said in a social media post.
The Netherlands government significantly reduced its subsidies for marine biofuel sales this year.
The FuelEU Maritime regulation coming into force next year should deliver a boost to biofuel sales both in Rotterdam and Singapore. At the Sibcon industry event earlier this month a Vitol executive said his firm expected Singapore biofuel sales roughly to double every year in the near term.
Rotterdam remains the world’s largest port for LNG bunkering, with Q3 sales of 220,120 m3 compared to 125,700 mt in Singapore.