3:29:15 PM | 22/10/2007
Some gasoline traders in Vietnam have recently proposed the Ministry of Finance to raise petrol retail prices in the wake of soaring oil price hike in the global market, the Lao Dong (Labor) newspaper reported on October 18.
The global crude oil price for delivery October 17 peaked at nearly US$88 per barrel, it said.
The traders recommended two solutions, or floating gasoline retail prices in the domestic market or applying state subsidiary, the ministry said, adding that some giants like Saigon Petro and Petrolimex have not yet taken a move of price hike.
The imported gasoline price was continuously escalating over the past six days, to US$90 per barrel of 159 liters of A92 petrol from over US$81, and a diesel barrel was priced at US$97.43.
Traders said each liter of the petrol and diesel should be sold at around VND12,800 and VND11,619 in Vietnam, including toll, insurance, parking, commission and circulation fees. However, traders are losing VND1,500 per liter of A92 gasoline and VND3,400 per liters of diesel, respectively.
On average, traders make loss of between VND10 billion and VND15 billion per every 10,000-ton batch, representative from an enterprise said, elaborating that local market consumes around one or 1.5 million liters of petrol per day.
However, the Ministry of Finance has not yet made any decisions on gasoline price hike but the Ministry of Industry and Trade is considering methods to minimize losses faced by petrol traders.
In mid-August, gasoline traders decided to cut the pumping prices of gasoline by VND500 to current VND11,300 and VND8,700 per liter of gasoline type A 92 and per liter of diesel, respectively.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade said Vietnam will need 13.3 million tons of petroleum products to meet its energy demand in 2007, up over 20 per cent on year, including 4 million tons of petrol.
Vietnam was estimated to have imported 9.2 million metric tons of petroleum products valued at US$5.11 billion from January to September, up 8 per cent on-year in volume term and 9.4 per cent in value term, the General Statistics Office (GSO) said. (Labor, Youth)
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