Shipping activity may stay sluggish as containership activity and bunkering demand remain weak in June, analysts and traders said.

Blank sailings, when a vessel skips a port on its route or the entire journey is cancelled, have surged in the first week of June, with the total pandemic-induced blanked capacity nearing four million TEU, shipping analysis firm Sea-Intelligence said.

Singapore Trade Minister Chan Chun Sing said the pace of planned extensions to Singapore's ports would depend on future demand as the pandemic batters the trade-reliant economy.

Slowing trade activity has also weighed on bunkering. "Covid-19 finally caught up in terms of bunker trend," said a local fuel trader.

Singapore bunker fuel sales volumes in May dropped to 3.925 million tonnes, down two per cent from last year and five per cent from April.

Average bunker loadings fell to a five-month low in May at 1,206 tonnes per ship, down from 1,285 tonnes in April and 1,208 tonnes last year, Reuters calculations showed.

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