Toyota Tsusho May Triple Singapore Marine-Fuel Sales Next Year

By Yuji Okada

Oct. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Toyota Tsusho Corp., the trading house of Japanese automaker Toyota Motor Corp, may triple marine- fuel sales in Singapore next year to exploit rising demand at the world's largest bunkering port, a company official said.

The company plans to boost monthly sales volume of the fuel, known as bunker fuel, at Singapore to between 100,000 metric tons and 150,000 tons from the current average of 50,000 tons by providing a tanker for delivery and storage in the first quarter of 2009, the official said on condition of anonymity because the plan hasn't been announced.

Bunker fuel demand has been rising in Singapore because of the local market's price advantage. The fuel is offered more cheaply than in ports elsewhere in Asia and on the U.S. west coast, where many trans-Pacific container vessels call after leaving Singapore.

``Ship owners, including ones from Japan, will continue looking at Singapore as a main bunkering port,'' said Ryo Furuya, Tokyo branch manager of OceanConnect, a U.S. bunker fuel broker. ``The slowing economy may reduce bunker demand globally, but Singapore's stability of quality fuel supply and price advantage won't change.''

Toyota Tsuho spokesman Ryo Kobayashi confirmed today that the company has ordered a tanker to increase bunker fuel oil sales in Singapore. He didn't disclose further details.

Singapore's bunker sales may reach a record 33 million to 35 million tons this year, maintaining the city-state's position as the world's top re-fuelling port, even after taking into account a slowdown in economic growth, Transport Minister Raymond Lim said in a speech on Oct. 15.

Japan Focus

Toyota Tsusho plans to continue focusing on sales to Japanese ship owners after the expansion, the official said. He declined to specify the cost of the tanker, a so-called bunker barge, but suggested the price will be below five billion yen, or $50 million. The 20,000-ton tanker, which will be the biggest among bunker barges deployed around the city-state, will also serve as a storage tank, he said.

``It's a bold move to buy the 20,000-ton barge,'' OceanConnect's Furuya said. ``I don't think any other Japanese trading house will follow suit in the Singapore market.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Yuji Okada in Singapore at yokada6@bloomberg.net.