How we rate, refresh and recommend bunker suppliers — and how we make money. Last updated 2026-05-06.
Fortis Shield is an editorial comparator. Our role is to help buyers shortcut the months of research it would otherwise take to evaluate the global bunker market. We are not a manufacturer, we do not sell bunkers, and we do not represent any specific supplier exclusively.
For every supplier in our directory, we use four classes of source — in order of weight:
Where prices or specs are estimated rather than published, the entry is explicitly marked as estimated and the source is cited.
Each supplier gets a Fortis Score from 0 to 10, computed across five weighted dimensions:
| Dimension | Weight | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| Transparency | 25% | Public pricing, published specs, named team, verifiable address |
| Track record | 25% | Years in business, projects completed, public reference work |
| Engineering quality | 20% | Materials, certifications, third-party validation, blast/NBC ratings |
| Regional reach | 15% | Whether the supplier actually serves the buyer's region (logistics, support) |
| Customer reputation | 15% | Public reviews, dispute history, post-build support quality |
Scores are recalibrated quarterly. Suppliers cannot pay to change their score, and we do not negotiate scores in exchange for partnerships.
We classify suppliers into mutually exclusive primary categories so buyers can filter quickly:
Every Sunday at 03:00 UAE time, an automated pipeline runs locally on our editorial workstation:
suppliers.json on the live site.Why a local model? Two reasons. First, supplier pages occasionally contain proprietary or quasi-confidential pricing and we will not transmit that to commercial AI APIs. Second, the cost of weekly LLM refreshes across 15+ suppliers would be material at API rates — local Gemma 4 inference is effectively free.
When a buyer fills out our match form, the algorithm filters the supplier database by region (must serve the buyer's country), budget (price range must overlap), and format (categories must match the buyer's stated need). Suppliers that pass the filter are then ranked by Fortis Score, and the top 2-3 are surfaced in a shortlist email reviewed by a human editor before sending.
The shortlist explicitly states why each supplier was picked, and surfaces the trade-offs the buyer should weigh.
The referral arrangement is the same across suppliers — typically a single-digit percentage of the closed deal value, agreed individually with each supplier. We disclose the existence of the referral arrangement on every page where the supplier is mentioned. We do not disclose the exact percentage because individual contract terms vary and are confidential.
If you are a supplier and a fact in your profile is wrong, email editorial@fortisshield.net with documentation. We correct factual errors within 5 business days. We do not negotiate scores or remove negative editorial findings; both can move when underlying facts change.
Fortis Shield is operated by SOFT DEV FZ LLC, a Creative City Free Zone company in Fujairah, UAE. The site is editorially independent of any individual supplier. Inquiries: editorial@fortisshield.net · partnerships: partnerships@fortisshield.net.