SINGAPORE: Marine fuel sales at the UAE's Fujairah, the world's third-largest bunker hub, scaled eight-month highs in August, although volumes remained lower from a year-ago period, data showed.

Bunker sales at Fujairah provide a gauge of shipping market sentiment in the Middle East.

August bunker sales, excluding lubricants, were at 677,503 cubic metres, or about 671,000 metric tons, up 2.7% month-on-month but down 6.3% from the same month last year, according to the Fujairah Oil Industry Zone (FOIZ) data, which is published by S&P Global Commodity Insights.

The uptick in August was driven by a climb in high-sulphur bunker sales, which rose 12.7% month-on-month to 196,343 cubic meters, or about 195,000 metric tons. Attractive discounts of delivered 380-cst HSFO bunker fuel versus cargo quotes could have spurred uptake in August, based on pricing data provided by industry sources.

Low-sulphur bunker sales of residual fuels and marine gasoils last month totalled 481,160 cubic meters, or about 477,000 metric tons, dipping 0.9% from levels seen in July.

This brought the market share of low-sulphur bunkers down to 71% from 74%, and of high-sulphur bunkers up at 29% from 26%, compared with last month.

Fujairah bunker sales by month, in cubic metres, excluding lubricants: Month Total Sales M-o-M Y-o-Y Jan-23 633,023 -8.8% -2.0% Feb-23 572,371 -9.6% -6.5% Mar-23 559,800 -2.2% -19.0% Apr-23 596,330 6.5% -10.3% May-23 620,388 4.0% -16.7% Jun-23 605,374 -2.4% -6.5% Jul-23 659,566 9.0% -0.8% Aug-23* 677,503 2.7% -6.3%

Monthly bunker sales by grade, in cubic metres: Month 180cst LSFO 380cst LSFO 380cst HSFO MGO LSMGO Lubricants Jan-23 300 453,703 151,055 796 27,169 4,039 Feb-23 545 389,544 159,908 713 21,661 4,549 Mar-23 250 451,405 81,058 538 26,549 3,475 Apr-23 480 441,912 126,943 257 26,738 4,270 May-23 170 468,635 126,586 2,021 22,976 4,723 Jun-23 573 449,264 127,573 1,088 26,876 4,732 Jul-23 1,272 459,665 174,227 1,387 23,015 4,151 Aug-23* 0 450,420 196,343 459 30,281 4,587 (Data from the Fujairah Oil Industry Zone published by S&P Global Commodity Insights) (Reporting by Jeslyn Lerh; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)