News / Already hard-hit feeder operators paying the price as bunker costs soar

12/01/2017

Bunker prices doubled last year, ending at around $300 per tonne for heavy fuel oil (HFO) and $450 per tonne for low-sulphur marine diesel oil (MDO), putting more pressure on the already slim margins of feeder operators.

So the fourth-quarter surge in container rates was timely for ocean carriers with ultra-large ...

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Bill Brassington
January 13, 2017 at 12:06 am
Mike,
Interesting article, and worth looking at this on a regional basis too. Currently the Far Eastern price for HFO appears to be about $80 per ton more expensive than in NW Europe. Whereas the price of MDO showed a sudden $50 price hike in NW Europe in the start of the last quarter of 2016.

Since the beginning of the year the average price of MDO has increased by approximately 96% but we have to look back to July 2009 to see lower average price per ton,

Are the smaller carriers not attracting the bulk discounts that the major carriers are probably getting and therefore suffering a double whammy!

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