Alkagesta's Singapore unit has reached monthly marine fuel volumes of between 200,000 and 250,000 mt in its first year of trading, an unusually fast ramp-up for a newly established bunker desk in the world's largest bunkering port.
Alkagesta Asia Pte, the Malta-based commodity trader's Singapore entity, began commercial activity on 1 July 2025. Alongside marine fuel, the team has been trading naphtha cargoes into East and Southeast Asia during its first twelve months.
The Singapore operation is led by Agshin Bakirzade, who oversees commodity trading across the Asia-Pacific region, and Mithat Çiftçioğlu, who runs the firm's marine fuel distribution business.
"The APAC marine fuels market remains highly attractive, but today success is increasingly driven by supply security, operational reliability, and financial discipline rather than simply chasing volume," Çiftçioğlu said.
That framing reflects a wider shift in bunker buying. Following a run of credit failures across the supply chain, shipowners and operators have become more selective about counterparties, weighing balance-sheet strength and consistency of delivery alongside headline price.
Alkagesta said Singapore's standing as a marine fuel hub has been reinforced by the disruption to trade flows through the Red Sea and the Middle East, which has pushed more tonnage onto routes that bunker in the port.
Group-wide, the trader said volumes rose from roughly 5.2 million mt in 2023 to more than 8.7 million mt in 2025, an expansion supported by new desks in Geneva and Singapore and by storage capacity secured in Europe and Asia.
