Red Sea ship diversions boost bunker demand, prices in Africa, Mediterranean
THE re-routing of a growing number of ships around Africa to avoid potential attacks in the Red Sea is altering refuelling patterns and boosting demand for bunker fuel at far-flung ports, from Mauritius to South Africa to the Canary Islands. Ships are also expected to top up more at Singapore and Rotterdam, the two busiest bunkering ports and where fuel is competitively priced, as they try to hedge against uncertainty over route changes, traders and analysts said. Attacks by Yemen's Houthi militia on merchant ships in the Red Sea and retaliatory U.S. strikes have ratcheted up tensions in the Middle East as the…