Singapore has reported a second month of declining bunker sales and container throughput, according to official figures.

October’s bunker sales of 3.64mt were down almost 5.5% on September’s figure, but up slightly compared to a year ago.

The decline in volumes came despite the number of ships calling to refuel at one of the world’s top bunkering port increasing.

Ships calling at Singapore for bunkers increased 6.6% year-on-year to 3,468 vessels, according to data from the Maritime Port Authority (MPA).

The bunkering industry in Singapore is a lucrative business with more than 65,000 bunkering operations taking place every year.

Its bunker industry is a major revenue earner with the sector generating income of around SGD20bn ($14.3bn) a year.

Figures from the MPA also show that Singapore registered a near 16% decline in container throughput in October.

The Lion Republic’s container terminals handled 2.5mteu versus the nearly 3mteu seen in the corresponding month in 2014.

For the year-to-date Singapore has seen container throughput of 26mteu, which marks a year-on-year decrease of 7.5%.