Maersk Q2 Bunker Use Down 4.3% While Costs Jump 36% Year-on-Year

• Bunker consumption fell 4.3% YoY to 2.56 million FOE tonnes in Q2
• Bunker costs rose 36% to $2.11 billion in Q2
• Q2 average bunker price climbed 44% YoY to $777/FOE tonne
• H1 bunker consumption fell 4.8% to 5.08 million FOE tonnes

Container shipping company A.P. Moller-Maersk saw Q2 2026 bunker consumption drop by 4.3% year-on-year, while bunker costs jumped 36% amid higher fuel prices linked to the Middle East situation.

The firm consumed a total of 2.56 million fuel oil equivalent tonnes (FOE tonnes) in Q2 2026, down 4.3% from Q2 2025 but up about 2.1% from Q1 2026, it said in an earnings release on Thursday.

From Q1 2026, Maersk has used fuel oil equivalent tonnes (FOE tonnes) as its standard reporting unit for bunker consumption, replacing metric tonnes.

Improved bunker efficiency helped partly offset the impact of higher fuel prices.

The firm consumed 6.04 FOE kg/TEU day of marine fuel in Q2, down from 6.42 FOE kg/TEU day in Q2 2025.

The company spent about $2.11 billion on bunkers in Q2 2026, up 36% or $556 million from $1.55 billion in Q2 2025.

Bunker costs accounted for about 25% of the firm’s shipping operating costs in Q2 2026, compared with 22% in the same period last year.

“As anticipated, the Middle East situation led to a 19% increase in operating costs, primarily driven by higher bunker costs,” the company said in the report. 

“The average bunker price increased by 44%, partly offset by the optimised bunker consumption of 4.3%.”

“Unit cost at fixed energy decreased by 0.8%, as higher volumes counterbalanced higher operating costs.”

The average bunker price for the firm in Q2 was $777/FOE tonne, an increase of 44% from $538/FOE tonne in Q2 2025.

Overall, the company consumed 5.08 million FOE tonnes of bunkers in the first half of this year, compared with 5.33 million FOE tonnes for the same period last year.

Meanwhile, bunker costs for the first six months of this year amounted to $3.9 billion compared to $3.6 billion in the same period last year.