Singapore—Bunker fuel operations at South Korea’s southern coast remained at a standstill for the fourth consecutive day Thursday, but fuel oil inventories at the main ports of Busan, Ulsan and Yeosu remained at comfortable levels and a tank-top situation was only expected if the strike by bunker barge operators got prolonged for another couple of weeks. Bunker barge operations at the ports remained suspended after the Korea Oil Supply Shipowners Association rejected a compromise offered by refiners over barge operating fees at a meeting on Wednesday. “We cannot accept the counter-proposal of a meager increase in fees by refiners. What we want is a fundamental measure to address low operating fees paid by refiners,” Lee Dae-Won, a director of the association, said Thursday.
展开▼
