Freight customers face significant fuel price rise from 1 December
Shippers and freight forwarders are preparing to help carriers cover the extra cost of next year’s cleaner, low-sulphur fuel from next month, for which prices look set to be around 34-38% higher than the level paid for the current IFO 380 (intermediate fuel oil) fuel. And although transitional or ‘emergency’ bunker charges were only expected to apply to spot rates and to contracts of less than three months, customers with annual contracts have also been requested by some carriers to start paying an IMO BAF from 1 December.
Since early October, the weighted average low-sulphur bunker price for major bunkering ports has been $542 per metric tonne, so assuming prices stay at about that level in the next two weeks, the bunker reference price for the period October-November will be around $530-550, up about 34-38% from the $396 price of IFO 380 fuel at the same bunkering ports.
