Aegean Marine Petroleum exited the Singapore bunker fuel business this week, handing over to the Singapore Maritime and Port Authority its bunker supply and craft operator licenses, the company said in a statement Thursday morning.
The exit comes amid leaner margins in the overall global bunker industry, with many companies struggling to remain competitive in a tougher commercial environment.
“Aegean took the decision in October 2017 to announce to the market that we would exit physical supply in Singapore in January 2018,” President Jonathan Mcilroy said in the statement, adding that the company met with Singapore’s port authorities on January 15. It had completed all existing commitments, he said.
“We are working on a number of projects, which will see the group broaden its presence worldwide with new and innovative physical supply stations, some of which will come on stream in the course of 2018,” Mcilroy said.
As part of the exit process, Aegean, which was a bunker fuel supplier in Singapore for 11 years, has reduced its Singapore office presence but retains a staff of five to support Asian customers.
Platts reported in November last year that the New York-listed bunker supplier posted a net loss of $3.8 million for the third quarter of 2017, a fall of more than 120% year on year. Sales of marine fuel oil slipped 2.8% on the year to 4,139,624 mt.
“We experienced an extremely challenging market environment during the third quarter of 2017. Despite modest improvement in some segments of the shipping industry, the oil markets and the marine fuel sector remain under great pressure with intense competition leading to further margin deterioration,” Mcilroy had said in a statement on November 15 last year.