Shipping traffic and sales of marine fuel in Singapore fell to a seven-month low in September as weak global economic activity further slowed international trade.

Sales of bunker fuel in Singapore fell for the second month in a row in September to 3.326 million metric tonnes, down 6.80 percent on year, as the number of vessels calling at Singapore only to buy fuel fell to the lowest level since February, reported Dow Jones.

Total gross tonnage of vessels arriving in Singapore in September fell about 3.5 percent on month to a seven-month low.

A combination of a weak shipping market, a contracting Singapore economy and slowing global trade of goods is leading to lower shipping activity in Singapore, which lies along key global shipping routes and is the world's largest refueling port for ships.

The economic crisis in the euro zone and lackluster growth in the US and China last month prompted the World Trade Organization to cut its 2012 global trade growth outlook forecast to 2.5 percent from 3.7 percent.

Shipping companies have sharply reduced their consumption of fuel this year by resorting to super slow steaming practices. Reducing ships' speed sharply not only cuts fuel consumption, it also has the effect of lowering an overall capacity glut in the industry that has pushed freight rates to historical lows.

A slowdown in the export-driven Singapore economy has further weighed down demand for marine fuel, with container throughput at the port falling to its lowest level since April.

Singapore's economy shrank by 1.5 percent in the third quarter from the previous three months. September container throughput in Singapore was down nearly 5 percent from August, when its non-oil domestic exports fell 10.6 percent from a year earlier amid a sharp slowdown in exports to the European Union and China.

Source: Cargonews Asia