World Bunkering > News > Autumn 2009 > Waiting for the ships to come in

Container

According to the Port of Rotterdam authorities, 2008 was a “crazy” bunker year, characterised mainly by the huge fluctuations in bunker prices, from a height of $724 per tonne in July to a low of $236 in December. Throughput figures for Rotterdam’s bunker port fell slightly in 2008, from 13.6 million tonnes to just under 13 million tonnes, about equal to the 2006 level. However, sales of low-sulphur bunker oil were up from about 1.7 million tonnes to over 2 million tonnes. In total, sales were:

• 12,493,424 tonnes of fuel oil
• 252,414 tonnes gas oil
• 123,954 tonnes of lubrican
• 87,526 tonnes of diesel oil
• 12,967,317 tonnes - total

The number of bunker calls was down slightly, from 22,165 to 21,864.

Bunker calls continued to decline in the first half of 2009, with Platts reporting that bunker sales were down 10% against the same period last year. The company added that bunker demand in other European ports had fallen even more sharply.

Platts reports that overall traffic through the port in the first half of 2009 was down by 8.8% against the same period in 2008, while the port’s own figures show a 15% fall in container throughput. Dry bulk throughput showed an even more dramatic fall, down by 38%. The fall in thoroughput – and hence in vessel calls – has ineveitably had an effect. The overall fall in bunker sales was in part due to the lower number of containerships bunkering last year, with several lines cancelling or curtailing services, or switching to smaller vessels. According to media reports, some 6.5% of capacity had been removed from the Asia-Europe routes by October alone, and more services have been cancelled since this time.

This can have a major impact on the bunkering industry. It has been calculated that termination of a service makes a difference of some 350,000 tonnes per annum, assuming large container vessels taking 7,000 tonnes per delivery on calling at Rotterdam. However, the trades are gradually recovering with new services being launched. After a difficult start to the year, the Port of Rotterdam is perhaps seeing the tiniest shoots of recovery in terms of cargo throughput. At the end of the second quarter of 2009, port authority president Hans Smits says things look to be turning a corner. How much of an effect this will have on the bunkering market, remains to be seen.

Recovery in sight?

Cargo volumes could see tentative signs of recovery by the fourth quarter of 2009 as the cargo decline bottoms-out, Smit says. There could be a further strengthening of the recovery in the start of 2010. But at the same time, he warns that it will take another three to four years before volumes return to the record levels of 2008.

An initiative to increase barge transport could drive demand

Volumes reached around 420 million tonnes in 2008 but Smits indicated that overall cargo volumes were likely to fall by between 6.5% and 15% this year. This dip was partly due to a sharp drop in volumes of iron ore and because of the decline in steel demand. Iron ore volumes are expected to decline by about 35%, the port forecast. Container volumes, however, have actually been growing again since February and are approaching 2007 levels. Shipping lines, particularly those in the Asian trade, seem to be consolidating services in the Dutch port and Rotterdam is gaining feeder traffic for the Baltic region.

Storage has also been doing well, with a predicted increase of around 15% in the sector – partly due to speculators who bought oil at the bottom of the market and are waiting for prices to rise. Good news for the owners of tank farms, perhaps less so for bunker suppliers, who have reported shortage of available storage as a problem in the past.

Maasvlakte 2 gets green light

As well as bringing more than a fair share of grim news, 2009 also brought some really welcome news for Rotterdam as it finally got the go-ahead for its E2 billion land reclamation and expansion project, Maasvlakte 2, which will see the port expand by 20%. All five permits needed for construction have now been obtained. Construction work on the first container quay will begin next year, and the first ships are expected to call in 2013. The port extension is being especially designed to accommodate the latest generation of containerships, being the only location in Europe where container vessels with the maximum draught can visit without any tidal restrictions, according to port authorities. This will lead to a call for more high-capacity, fast delivery bunker barges to service these vessels.

It is expected that the development of Maasvakte II will also lead to increased inland water traffic. At the end of June it was confirmed that Alblasserdam, to the east of Rotterdam, will be the location for a “Container Transferium”, where containers arrive from the port by road and then continue their journey by barge. Within three years the transferium is expected to shift some 200,000 TEU off the roads on to the waterways – again creating opportunity for suppliers of fuel to the barges.

APL, APM Terminals, ECT, Evergreen, Hapag-Lloyd, Maersk Line, MOL and Rotterdam World Gateway signed a “Letter of Support” to endorse the transferium concept.

Despite the downturn, Rotterdam continues to press on with expansion plans and making itself ready for when the market recovers again. The Dutch port is confident that the economy will improve again and that the increase in world trade means that it has to be able to accommodate the growth. Mr Smits believes that the US and China will be the first to recover and this will be followed by Europe. A port authority is in the position to make anti-cyclical investments and make sure it is prepared when the capacity is needed, he stresses. The reality is perhaps somewhat different for bunker barge operators.

Antwerp introduces cold ironing

Antwerp announced in May this year that it has launched a trial cold-ironing project with shore power for seagoing ships. The environmental impact of this investment is direct, local and significant as regards among other things emissions of NOx, CO2 and particulates, local authorities said.

Shore-based power was already available for barges, as well as the Port Authority’s tug and dredger fleet, floating cranes and dry dock complex, but this was the first time it has been made available to seagoing ships, the largest sector of port users, and the one which has the largest effect on environmental performance.

The cold ironing project is a collaboration between Independent Maritime Terminal (IMT), the Port Authority and the Flemish Community. According to the Port Authority: “The project is unique not only in terms of the amount of power that has to be generated but also in terms of the types of ships served as well as the technical facilities that are necessary.” The IMT terminal is dedicated to ICL, which has already equipped three of its four ships to make use of this shore power facility.

The Port Authority attaches a great deal of importance to this project, as shore power forms an integral part of its approach to combating air pollution on a local scale. Using shore power cuts CO2 emissions by more than half and NOx emissions by as much as 97%, while CO emissions are practically eliminated, the Port Authority says – although this does not take into account CO emissions from generation of the power elsewhere.The total investment cost of the shore power facilities amounts to E1.1 million.