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The Port of Rotterdam Authority has announced that sales volumes of marine fuel at Europe's leading bunker port fell by over 600,000 tonnes, or 4.7 percent, in 2008 compared to the previous year.

Throughput figures for Rotterdam dropped from 13.6 million tonnes in 2007 to just under 13 million tonnes last year, almost equalling 2006 levels.

Commenting on the results, Rotterdam Port Authority said "It was a crazy bunker year during which prices varied from US$ 724 (July) to US$ 236 (December) per tonne. The fall was mainly due to the lower number of container ships bunkering last year."

In total, 12,493,424 tonnes of fuel oil, 252,414 tonnes of marine gas oil (MGO), 87,526 tonnes of diesel oil (MDO) and 123,954 tonnes of lubricating oil were bunkered in 2008. This resulted in a total turnover of 12,967,317 tonnes.

The number of bunker calls was also down slightly last year, from 22,165 to 21,864.

Meanwhile, sales of low-sulphur bunker fuel increased from approximately 1.7 million tonnes to over 2 million tonnes, the port said.

Along with Singapore and Fujairah, Rotterdam is one of the three largest bunker ports in the world.

However, whilst sales in Rotterdam dipped last year, Singapore - the world's largest bunker port by volume - reached a new record of 34.9 million tonnes in 2008, according to data released by the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA). The figure surpassed the previous year's record of 31.5 million tonnes by 10.7 percent.