FEDERAL government advice that six ‘lost’ April fuel import shipments have been replaced, and a further three contracted from the USA, will provide some soothing of nerves in the shipping and transport industries but what comes next remains problematic.
Of the tankers identified in DCN’s 9 March report AIS shows Nord Ventura departed Port Allen, Baton Rouge, Louisiana on Sunday [22 March] and is now on its way to the Panama Canal.
Research by DCN shows Largo Eagle departed Baton Rouge on 16 March and is due into Port Botany on 18 April with about 343,225 barrels of clean petroleum product.
Additionally, Atlantic Sunshine departed Cherry Point in north-west USA on 24 March and is due into Melbourne on 18 April with approximately 314,232 barrels of diesel.
A fourth tanker, Cape Andiamo, departed Chalmette (Louisiana) on 14 March and is expected at Newcastle on 14 April with approximately 281,218 barrels of diesel.
Australia normally sources most of its refined product from Asia, principally India, South Korea and Singapore but a growing of countries, including China, Thailand and South Korea are banning exports in order to maintain supplies for domestic use, given they normally buy crude from Middle Eastern producers.
Malaysia, one of the key sources of crude for Australia’s two remaining refineries, has also flagged export restrictions. Viva Geelong and Ampol Brisbane use different grades of crude, obtained from different sources.
Local container line management has told DCN while they are relatively comfortable usual bunker supplies will continue to be available in Australia they’re not nearly so confident about availability “at the other end”.
Ordinarily the main customers for local suppliers are ships engaged in Bass Strait/coastal services, plus those operating trans-Tasman, to the South Pacific and to North America, which have no access to cheaper bunkers offshore. Cruise ship operators, locally-based or RTW, are also potentially impacted.
However, DCN has received unconfirmed reports that ships engaged in one of the major Asia-Australia consortium services was last week unable to take bunkers as scheduled in Chinese mainland ports, encountering delays of a day or more.
The federal government has said that Australia normally receives an average of around 80 tankers a month, although as an average this means shipments can spike or decline month-by-month. News Limited, quoting data from the London Stock Exchange Group, said just 26 fuel cargoes are due in Australia next month, compared to 97 in March.
By comparison New Zealand, clearly a much smaller and less populous country, yesterday said it expected only two shipments in the next fortnight but that has been updated today to seven before 12 April.