Barge maintenance to impact Kaohsiung’s MGO supply

MGO availability at Taiwan’s Kaohsiung port is set to tighten between 8 March and 10 April as the MGO bunker barge Chung Yu No. 16 undergoes its scheduled annual maintenance, according to state-owned CPC Corporation.

IMAGE: The coastal urban landscape of the port of Kaohsiung in Taiwan. Getty Images

With the barge temporarily out of service, roughly one-third of the port’s MGO supply capacity will be offline, a source said. As a result, MGO availability is expected to be more constrained than usual, and vessels may experience longer waiting times for bunkering.

To manage supply during the maintenance period, the supplier has introduced temporary order requirements. These include a minimum order quantity of 30 mt for standalone MGO orders, and at least 25 mt of MGO when ordered together with VLSFO.

VLSFO supply at Kaohsiung will remain unaffected, while HSFO is currently unavailable.

Meanwhile, bunker supply conditions at other key Taiwanese ports—Hualien in the south, Taichung on the west coast, and Keelung in the north—remain unchanged.

Recommended lead times for both VLSFO and MGO are about two days in Keelung and Hualien, while Taichung advises slightly longer lead times of around three days.

By Tuhin Roy

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