The facts speak for themselves when it comes to bunkering in Egyptian waters: currently around 1,200 vessels cross the Suez Canal every month but most of them have to see out between 12 to 18 hours of waiting until crossing. This is the ideal time to bunker, even though recent reports from industry experts suggest obtaining fuel at competitive prices is often difficult for ships using the Suez Canal.

Bunkering is one of the services we can help you with. Safina is at the heart of ship agency services in Egyptian ports and we can provide a full range of bunkering call services for any visiting ships in Egyptian waters. The global maritime fuel market is changing with the introduction of regulations banning the use of high sulphur fuel as from 1 January 2020. Despite fears over supplies, refinery and industry predictions are that there will be enough of the higher grade fuel available in busy shipping regions – including the Suez Canal –although it may be more expensive in the initial period of implementation.

Safina has worked with bunkering partners in the Red Sea region and across Egyptian ports and we will continue to liaise with them and our customers to ensure adequate supplies of the new bunkered fuel will be available. Recently Al-Iraqia Shipping Services & Oil Trading (AISSOT) has expanded its operations with a licence to operate in Egyptian territorial waters covering the Suez Canal. This will ensure that as one of the major shipping lanes in the maritime world there will be enough fuel to go round and they started bunkering new fuels from September 2018. The region is respected for its importance in world trade and we will be working with bunkering partners to provide this new compliant fuel.

Bunkering is part of our overall ship agency services available across all Egyptian ports covering vessel, crew, cargo and cash services. We have operated our own ships so we understand the needs of our customers and what they expect we can deliver to ensure their voyages are not delayed. Bunkering will be one of the issues most of the shipping world will be concerned with in the first few months of 2019. Our concern will be to maintain our ship agency, cargo handling and comprehensive maritime logistics services in conjunction with bunkering. If you are looking for a reliable and trusted partner for your vessels in Egyptian waters, then Safina is that name.