Originally Posted by Unregistered

this post from 3 yrs ago coming to 4 yrs now. been in bunkering for a year now so share some stuff for those who are still curious.

basically everything mentioned by the poster is true esp with the introduction of MFM.

indeed it is a very competitive industry with only 55 businesses licensed to do bunkering in singapore as of 2019. the bulk of the volume goes to the top 10-15 bunkering companies as they have the infrastructure to actually take on the orders and deliver the product. the market is still there and whilst its not growing, it remains a huge one.

bunkering is a capital intensive industry that involves physical delivery of cargo (bunkers) so small shops will find it really hard to compete. you need barges, storage units, a lot of manpower (crew, engineers, shore staff, physical and paper traders, etc etc). if you are a trader with one of these small shops without an existing network of clients it will be highly challenging for you to eke out a living, simply because the demand for your services is weak although nothing is impossible.

fighting for a slice of the market between companies is very prevalent and even within a company there are significant politics.

one important thing to note; the poster mentioned that on a deal of 50k the margin would be between 1-2k i.e. 2-4% and your comms might be 10% of that 100-200. these figures are not too far from the reality but most bunker deals go into 6-7 figures, easily.

a single bulk carrier, container ship, oil product tanker sailing from singapore to south africa/japan/europe/usa often buys more than 1500MT of fuel. there is a demand for bunkering in singapore because we have one of the lowest prices in asia for fuel, owing to our refining capabilities and other industry efficiencies.

only certain ports e.g. fajuirah, osaka, seattle and a few russian + middle eastern ports have prices that beat ours.

to illustrate, 1000MT of IF0380 at today's prices of 320/MT (which are near a 6-month low) would be a 320 000 USD deal. 2% of that is 6400, giving you a comms of 640 USD. in a large bunkering company with a reputation of being able to fulfill orders promptly, you will be doing multiples of this quantity, per day. if you as a trader as responsible for just one of these deals, averaging 10 a month, you will be earning a commission of close to 6.4K USD/mth on top of your basic allowance.

its doable but there are better alternatives out there for degree wielding millenials. besides, you need connections to enter this industry and the most lucrative roles will often be given to family.