The sales volume of bunker fuel rose 5.8 percent in September from a year earlier, despite cargo prices being more than 70 percent higher.
Annual volume is still on track to close at record-high levels of around 25 million tonnes, with an average of 2.11 million tonnes for the first nine months of the year, figures from Singapore's Maritime Port Authority (MPA) showed.
The sales volume, which includes marine fuel of 380-centistoke (cst), 180-cst and 500-cst grades, as well as marine diesel oil and marine gas oil, eased from August due to record-high fuel oil cargo prices in September, said traders.
"Average prices for bunkers grade 380-cst were above $300 a tonne and that has impacted on demand. Ship owners just bought the minimum here, enough for them to get to the next port," a Singapore-based marine fuels supplier said.
"But the overall volume of above 2 million is still very high, and well above levels from the previous year simply because shipping traffic has increased."
The average cargo price for 380-cst for September was $309.08 a tonne, higher than the average value of $180.00 from the same month in 2004 and up from the previous month's $273.88.
The high fuel oil prices in September were driven by soaring global crude benchmarks, which hit an all-time high of $70.85 a barrel in late August in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, and a tightening market.
The squeeze climaxed in October when only 1 million tonnes of Western cargoes arrived in East Asia, well below the average level of around 1.7 million tonnes.