Bloomberg is reporting that ships are queuing more than twice as long as normal to stock up on new low sulphur fuel at the world’s top bunkering hub, Singapore.
Rather than the normal average of five days, Bloomberg reports it is now taking on average about two weeks to book a barge in Singapore with only around of a fifth of the 300 bunker barges having completed the cleaning of their tanks to be able to handle low sulphur fuel.
Elsewhere, Splash is hearing of delays across the world as shipping’s greatest fuel switch for a century has hit an inevitable initial supply chain bump. The delays are expected to send freight rates higher, especially for tankers, where tonnage has been tight in recent weeks.
Sam,
Would it be a stretch to suggest that the bargemen are manipulating the market to their best advantage…What motivates: The Wealth Of Nations, Book IV Chapter VIII, v. ii, p. 660, para. 49.…AND THE DISTORTION OF TRADE
“People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices…. But though the law cannot hinder people of the same trade from sometimes assembling together, it ought to do nothing to facilitate such assemblies, much less to render them necessary…