IMO-fuel supply ramps up in Hamburg

Dutch marine fuels supplier Trefoil sold its first 0.5pc sulphur fuel oil cargo in Hamburg yesterday. The 550t cargo will be delivered with some high-sulphur 380cst fuel oil (HS380) and marine gasoil (MGO) on 24 October. Trefoil, which has its main bunkering operations in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) hub, operates two barges in its supply locations between Hamburg and Kiel. Trefoil's parent company regained operational control of the barges after they were chartered out to marine fuels supplier Bomin in March, when Bomin exited the Hamburg market. In addition, Trefoil charters two barges that supply around a tenth of its volumes in Hamburg.

Integrated fuel supplier Varo has started supplying 0.5pc sulphur fuel oil on spot and term contract in Hamburg and Bremerhaven in Germany. Varo has two 4,150 dwt bunker barges operating in the port of Hamburg and surrounding locations on the river Elbe and the Kiel Canal. The barges will supply the new 0.5pc sulphur fuel oil and continue supply of marine high-sulphur fuel oil (HSFO) and 0.1pc sulphur MGO. Another 1,850 dwt bunker barge supplies 0.5pc sulphur fuel oil and 0.1pc sulphur MGO from Varo's refineries to the ports of Hamburg and Bremerhaven.

Varo, which is partly owned by commodities company Vitol, has a refinery in Cressier, Switzerland, and a minority share in the Bayernoil refinery in southern Germany.

Danish marine fuels supplier Bunker One also supplies 0.5pc sulphur fuel oil, with two bunker barges operating in Hamburg and Bremerhaven and a larger barge on the river Elbe and Kuxhaven. Bunker One sold the grade to a buyer in the Baltic Sea as early as January, and started offering it in Hamburg by February, but demand only picked up in the past two weeks. Before that it mostly gave price indications on request from shipowners.

Bunker One has now sold 0.5pc sulphur fuel oil on spot to four or five vessels in the Hamburg area and signed its first term contract for delivery there. With an average volume of 200-500t, the 0.5pc sulphur fuel cargoes Bunker One has supplied are still modest in comparison with the 500-600t average for HS380, the most popular grade, but significantly larger than the 120t average for 0.1pc sulphur MGO cargoes.

German marine fuels supplier Hans Rinck started supplying 0.5pc sulphur fuel oil in Hamburg in October, when demand for the grade started rising there. Hans Rinck operates three bunkering vessels which will continue to supply marine HSFO in addition to 0.1pc MGO and 0.5pc sulphur fuel oil. It also has access to several bunker barges through voyage or timecharters, and can supply 5-30m³ cargoes by truck.

The shipping industry will largely switch to burning 0.5pc sulphur fuel oil and 0.1pc sulphur MGO in the run-up to the International Maritime Organisation's (IMO) global 0.5pc sulphur cap coming into force on 1 January 2020. The market transition is under way, with an increasing number of ports now offering 0.5pc sulphur fuel oil following a recent uptick in demand.

IMO-compliant 0.5pc sulphur fuel oil is also available in other European locations including ARA, Skaw, Gothenburg, Las Palmas, Gibraltar, Algeciras, Barcelona, Malta and Istanbul.