After three severe waves of increases In the fuel market, the country’s main private emblems lowered their prices starting this week.
With this adjustment, the private distributors ended up placing their prices at the same level as those of Paraguayan Petroleum (Petropar)after the increases that applied between March 7 and were extended until April 8, after the outbreak of the war in the Middle East
Although the state oil company also highlighted its prices on three occasions (between March 22 and May 4), the public oil company had been having lower prices at its service stations.
While the state company kept the price of type III diesel frozen at G. 8,200 per liter, the average in private firms skyrocketed to G. 8,930, with a difference of G. 730 per liter in favor of the public.
Read more: Fuel prices: is there a possibility of declines in the current scenario?
Fuel prices: end of the gap, for now
Market pressure and the reduction of international prices forced companies Shell, Copetrol and Petrobras—the main ones in the market— to reduce the prices of diesel and gasoline.
With the last reduction, these brands unified the price of common diesel exactly with the Petropar values (G. 8,200 per liter), after reducing G. 730 per liter.
The same was also replicated in the premium diesel segment. In this fuel, the previous gap reached G. 650 per liter, trading at G. 10,000 in Petropar compared to an average of G. 10,650 in the private sector. Currently, private suppliers lowered their prices to a range of between G. 10,000 and G. 10,100depending on each emblem.
Read more: Fuel increase in Petropar: why does the fall of the dollar not impact prices?
In the case of gasoline, the story was different due to the aggressive daily competition. Before this latest reduction in the private emblems, the 88 and 93 octane gasoline showed a minimal difference of just G. 50 per liter in favor of Petropar, while the 97 octane variant maintained a gap of G. 200.
With the reduction of quotes Of the gasoline private companies, there is almost a gap between the private companies and Petropar. Common gasoline remained at an average of G. 6,690the intermediate in G.7.190 and the super in G.8,540 per liter.
In percentage terms, the accumulated increase in cost at the state oil company between March and May was devastating. Common diesel tops the ranking of the hit to the pocketbook with a rise of 31.2% since February, followed by gasoline, which rose up to 28.9%.
Fuels: the chronology of increases
The dizzying schedule of increases in the private sector was unleashed on the weekend of March 7 and 8, affecting the smallest emblems first. The largest distributors joined forces on March 11.
Just days later, on March 16, small brands stood out again, followed by large brands on March 20. Finally, the third wave took place on April 1 for the first group and on April 8 for the rest.
During that period of historical increases At an international level, diesel from private emblems accumulated an approximate increase of G. 2,680 per liter (44%).
Read more: These are the emblems that lead the fuel market in the country
Despite the recent reduction of G. 730, fuel continues to cost G. 1,950 more per liter compared to the values prior to the Middle East conflict. Gasoline, for its part, rose G. 1,550 (26%) and, after the timid drops of between G. 50 and G. 200 in this last week, they maintain an increase of G. 1,250 compared to February.
On Petropar’s side, it did not avoid the impact of international volatility and applied a series of three staggered readjustments. After a period of stability, the first price jump in the state company occurred on March 23, the second on April 10 and the last on May 4, which continues to this day.
Under this scheme, the Diesel Porã jumped from the G. 6,250 initials to current ones G. 8,200 per liter (G. 1,950 more). In parallel, the Oikoite 93 Naphtha suffered an identical setback when moving from a base of G. 5,690 in February at G. 7,190 per liter which is the sale price today at the pumps, consolidating a total increase of G. 1,500.
