Some of the world's largest bunker companies saw a small decline in sales volumes in 2023 as the shipping industry returned to a more normal state following a record 2022, according to the latest survey from Ship & Bunker.
Among those seeing a reduction in bunker sales were Bunker Holding with a fall of 16.7% to about 25 million mt, World Fuel Services, down 12% to 16.8 million mt and Minerva with a drop of 1.2% to 16.3 million mt.
Bunker Companies report that this week has been updated for 2024 and include each firm's 2023 annual sales volume. Bunker Holding and WFS have, as in previous years, retained their positions in first and second place in the list, with the majority of the rest of those in the list also retaining their same position as last year.
Overall the companies covered by the report sold 117.2 million mt in 2023, a decrease of 1.7% over their sales in 2022. The analysis highlights that the leading bunker companies continue to maintain their significance in the market, with overall global volumes likely to have have seen a larger decline. The most recent official IMO data for global bunker sales is for 2021 and puts put the overall size of the global bunker market at about 224.8 million mt.
Even taking into account that Ship & Bunker data indicats that global volumes fell 2.1% in 2022 and that early indications are that 2023 volumes will likely be a little lower than in 2022. Even taking into account that a proportion of the Top 10 Bunker Companies' sales will not be to end users, they likely still represent at least half of global bunker sales to end users of fuel.
While the names of the 10 largest players may have changed from a decade ago, the 50% figure seems to have remained. Still, it is a far cry from the mid 2000s when the 'big 10' were considered to control around 20-25% of the market.