CITAC South Africa Bunker Market Outlook

CITAC Africa has published a concise South Africa Bunker Market Outlook report that covers the main bunker ports and grades, the bunker mix, market dynamics and a detailed port-by-port competition analysis.

Regular bunker fuel sales are available in the ports of Cape Town, Durban and Richards Bay with sporadic sales in Saldanha Bay that are shipped from Cape Town on a sea going barge or delivered by bulk truck. An offshore deep water bunkering operation in Algoa Bay (off the coast of Gqeberha) also provides bunker sales to vessels with the benefit that they don’t need to incur high port fees if they are calling for bunkers only. Three grades are currently sold in South Africa which are marine gasoil (MGO – meeting the DMA specification), a 180 cSt and 380 cSt high sulphur fuel oil (HSFO – 3,5 wt% sulphur) and an IMO 2020 compliant very low sulphur fuel oil (VLSFO – 0.5 wt% sulphur).

There is a regular supply of VLSFO and MGO at the major South African ports as suppliers seek to establish a reputation of reliability and product quality. Deliveries are via one or more barges providing efficient deliveries in an environmentally safe manner. 

Algoa Bay, Durban and Richards Bay appear to be pricing to compete with ports in other global hubs providing bunkers while Cape Town seems to be pricing to maximise its margin from vessels requiring top-up bunker stems.