Rotterdam, Antwerp and Hamburg bunker supplier Trefoil has mandated Inatech to overhaul its management systems in the face of new customs rules that further complicate the region’s bunker business after IMO 2020.

In the post IMO 2020 environment the speed of business and the scale of risk has gone up. This requires quicker decision making on market risk management and better operational planning to cope with changing demand. To add to this potent mix, new customs regulations in the Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Hamburg region require a more robust audit trail of product movement.

“This double whammy of market risk and regulatory risk has prompted Trefoil to rethink our entire operating system and to invest in maximising our efficiency in dealing with these challenges,” said Max Braams, strategic project manager at Trefoil in Rotterdam. “This also allowed us to consolidate all of our IT systems onto one platform as Inatech is not only supporting a CTRM but a fully integrated solution from front to back office including ERP and accounting. We are looking forward to a new era that will reduce our manual work and error-proneness significantly.”

Trefoil assigned Inatech to deploy its end-to-end bunker management system, Bunkertech. It saves time and cost for Trefoil’s operations while supporting rapid decision-making in a more complex environment by providing a holistic view of operations across trading, credit, cash flow and inventory together with real-time information about products, prices and availability, and P&L.

The new Customs rules have a material impact on operational planning and ultimately the cost structure. With a wider range of fuels available and strict compliance procedures, it has become critical for bunker suppliers to have systems in place that track the molecule.

“The new Dutch regulations coupled with IMO 2020 have undoubtedly increased all kinds of risks – price risk, operational risk, market risk, product risk and financial risk,” said Alok Sharma, senior vice president at Inatech in London. “Bunkertech, a part of our Techoil oil trading platform, is one of the few cloud based end-to-end systems which can help the business manage risks and ultimately maximise gross profit per ton.”

Trefoil operates independently throughout the ARA (Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp) region – one of the world’s primary oil hubs – as well as Hamburg. The company is part of Burando Maritime Service and mainly operates with company-owned and controlled barges within the group.

Source: VPO Global