In 2024, sales of alternative fuels at the world’s largest bunkering ports exceeded 1 million tons, but accounted for only about 2% of total fuel sales.
On January 15, at the Singapore Maritime Foundation’s (SMF) New Year’s Dialogue event, Singapore’s Parliamentary Secretary for Law and Transport, Murali Pillai, unveiled performance figures for the Port of Singapore, one of the world’s largest ports, for the year 2024.Minister Pillai said, “Despite the ongoing geopolitical conflicts and tensions in the global supply chain, we still achieved strong growth to record levels.”
Singapore continues to maintain its position as the world’s largest container transshipment center, with throughput of 41.2 million TEUs last year and 39.01 million TEUs in 2023. As Singapore continues to build its new super container terminal, Tuas Port, some 11 berths are now operational and this is expected to increase to 18 berths by 2027.
Singapore continues to consolidate its position as the world’s largest bunkering port, selling 54.92 million tons of bunker last year, up 6% from 2023. This is partly attributed to the longer voyage distances caused by the diversion of ships traveling between Asia and Europe from the Red Sea via the Cape of Good Hope, which in turn increases fuel demand.
Sales of alternative fuels are growing as decarbonization progresses and Singapore will use multiple fuels in the future. For the first time, sales of alternative fuels surpassed 1 million tons in 2024, including 880,000 tons of bio-blended fuels and 460,000 tons of LNG fuels.
Minister Pillai noted, “Methanol bunkering is now commercially available, and we have also blended ammonia with diesel for the first time as a marine fuel in the Port of Singapore.” Last year, a total of 1,626 tons of methanol was bunkered in the Port of Singapore.
The country is moving ahead with a number of programs related to alternative fuels and their applications. In April last year, the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA), together with 51 industry partners, set up the Maritime Energy Training Facility (METF) to equip maritime workers with the skills to safely handle alternative fuels such as methanol and ammonia.
Since the inception of the METF, some 430 mariners have completed training and Singapore aims to train 10,000 workers by 2040 to handle alternative fuels. Combining decarbonization and digitization, Singapore is partnering with other countries and regional authorities to build more and more green and digital shipping corridors (GDSCs.) “In 2024, we established new GDSCs with Australia and China’s Shandong province, and we are working on more partnerships in 2025,” Pillai said. ”
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)More importantly, progress has also been made in existing shipping corridors. The Singapore-Rotterdam GDSC has successfully piloted the bunkering of mass-balanced liquefied biomethane.
Other key performance figures include the Port of Singapore’s annual ship arrival tonnage growing by 0.6% to a record 3.11 billion gross tons in 2024. Of this, bulk carriers, container ships and tankers accounted for more than 90%. Meanwhile, Singapore Ship Registry (SRS) ship tonnage surpassed 100 million gross tons for the first time, reaching 108 million gross tons.