Falmouth pilots and barge crews clear bad weather backlog
4:40pm Wednesday 27th February 2013 in News
The prolonged period of strong easterly winds presented problems to the port’s bunkering firms, World Fuel Services and Aegean Marine, as heavy seas and swell in the bay interrupted bunkering from time to time during the past week.
Pilots managed to bring ships up to 190 metres in length into the Carrick Roads to bunker. For several days up to three ships at a time used the anchorages for taking on fuel oil and stores. The backlog of ships was quickly worked through by careful planning and working around the clock.
World Fuel Services is the largest marine fuel supplier in the world. Its global team oversees more than 35,000 transactions annually in more than 1,000 ports worldwide.
In its fourth quarter and annual report, issued last week, the company revealed that, for the full year, its marine segment generated a gross profit of $208.0 million, an increase of approximately $12.9 million or seven per cent year-over-year.
Aegean Marine is expected to announce its operating figures later this week.
Aegean Marine has only been operating in Falmouth for three months. The company is continually expanding its business globally. It already has bunkering operations in Vancouver, Montreal, Mexico, West Africa, Hong Kong, Gibraltar, Singapore the Gulf region, the Antwerp-Rotterdam area, Panama, the Canary Islands, Cape Verde, northern Europe and Greece. It is opening a new bunkering operation in Barcelona, Spain, next month and venturing into China.
