Diesel Price Raised To Bt18.19 From Tonight

[marquess]

They are way overdue for a rate increase. This issue been talked about from time to time but no action has ever been taken.

The real worry here is that when they review the meter prices. Could we see something like a 50% increase?

[dezeure]

I wonder how a 20% hike in the diesel price can happen and inflation will still stay at 3%.

Where did the minster and his staff learn maths?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Math? What Math? You need math to increase the price? This is Thailand...

Anyway, I don't mind them increasing the price... but they should have stronger technical checkups for those bad consuming smoking diesels.

Hey, I'm used to paying almost 55 Baht for a litre of Diesel, so the three Baht is resonable.

Cheers

[sriracha john]

I would have thought the main worry was not the affect on our personal use of fuel, but the price hiking all round as a result.  This will be used as excuse for inflation on all goods, even though transportation is only one part of the total cost.  Take for example the recent price increase in steel for construction.  The actual price increase according to the Bangkok post was 300 baht per tonne (from 21,000 bt per tonneto 21,300).  One builder quoting me for my house managed to turn this into a 10% price hike....

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

the main difference between diesel and steel price increases is that diesel has gone up 20%!.... any supplier would be justified in jacking up their prices by a similiar margin.

[sriracha john]

..Another example is thinner. Check out the bottles next time you're at the hardware store. The bottles look like soy sauce bottles and they are only 3/4 full.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Same with varnish. When I bought a bottle of each and noticed, my local hardware shop said it was for safety. Less explosive as there is more room for expansion. say wha??

I just had to laugh it off....

[AndyW]

I would have thought the main worry was not the affect on our personal use of fuel, but the price hiking all round as a result.  This will be used as excuse for inflation on all goods, even though transportation is only one part of the total cost.  Take for example the recent price increase in steel for construction.  The actual price increase according to the Bangkok post was 300 baht per tonne (from 21,000 bt per tonneto 21,300).  One builder quoting me for my house managed to turn this into a 10% price hike....

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

the main difference between diesel and steel price increases is that diesel has gone up 20%!.... any supplier would be justified in jacking up their prices by a similiar margin.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Transportation costs are just a fraction of a product's price. And diesel is only a fraction of transportation costs. 20% hike in diesel is no excuse for a product's price going up by a similar amount. But of course suppliers will try to do this if people let them.

[sriracha john]

The government would also launch campaigns to promote energy saving

--TNA 2005-03-22

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Energy saving??? Conservation??? what's that???

Tuesday March 22, 1:01 PM

Thai power consumption hits record high

High temperatures and continuing economic growth helped drive power demand in Thailand to a record high, the state power agency announced Tuesday.

Demand for electricity hit a record high of 19,593 megawatts on Monday, the state-owned Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand said.

The figure was 1.4 percent higher than the previous record of 19,326 megawatts set in March last year, the agency said.

[george]

Diesel sales surges upon price hike

BANGKOK: -- Sales of diesel at many service stations in Greater Bangkok surged almost doubly yesterday, as diesel users swamped to buy the fuel as much as possible before its prices are set to soar to a recorded high level of 18.19 baht per liter today.

A source said a lot of diesel users rushed to hoard the fuel upon hearing of the news on the government’s decision to raise the diesel price by 3 baht per liter.

Some came with empty oil tanks of various sizes to hoard the fuel as much as possible.

Worse still, staff of small service stations went with 200-liter tanks to buy and contain diesel from large stations; so they could keep it for sale today.

The rush for the fuel hoarding led to the earlier depletion of diesel supply at many service stations, said the source.

Apisit Rujikeatikamjorn, Senior Executive Vice President of PTT Public Company Limited (PTT)'s Oil Business Group, said the sale of diesel oil by the company in yesterday’s morning surged to 26 million liters from the normal daily sale of around 15-16 million liters.

The company’s oil depots and service stations had been instructed not to hoard fuel, he said, adding that they were asked to provide full services to customers.

However, Mr. Apisit conceded that PTT might need to sell the diesel to oil jobbers first, as they were short of the fuel supply because many refining plants, which have production capacity of 50% of the total, had stopped operation for maintenance.

He also warned that global oil prices remained extremely high, and that the further domestic gasoline price rises could be in the pipeline.

“Now, global fuel prices continue to stay high. Gasoline and diesel prices in Singapore are as high as US$60 and US$63-64 per barrel, resulting in a marketing margin reducing to less than 1 baht per liter. So, local gasoline prices may be raised further,” he said.

Mr. Santi Vilassakdanont, the Vice President of the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI), described the government’s decision to raise diesel prices by Bt3 as a ‘brave move’, and urged the government to keep careful checks on transportation prices and the market price of goods.

The FTI has indicated, however, that it does not want further caps on goods prices, and has suggested that businesses should be able to raise the prices of their products in line with the higher fuel costs.

--TNA 2005-03-23

[AndyW]

I would have thought the main worry was not the affect on our personal use of fuel, but the price hiking all round as a result.  This will be used as excuse for inflation on all goods, even though transportation is only one part of the total cost.  Take for example the recent price increase in steel for construction.  The actual price increase according to the Bangkok post was 300 baht per tonne (from 21,000 bt per tonneto 21,300).  One builder quoting me for my house managed to turn this into a 10% price hike....

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

the main difference between diesel and steel price increases is that diesel has gone up 20%!.... any supplier would be justified in jacking up their prices by a similiar margin.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Transportation costs are just a fraction of a product's price. And diesel is only a fraction of transportation costs. 20% hike in diesel is no excuse for a product's price going up by a similar amount. But of course suppliers will try to do this if people let them.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

From Bkk Post, Business section:

" Ninnart Chaithirapinyo, a senior member of the Federation of Thai Industries, said higher diesel prices would raise transport costs by one baht for every kilometre. "

You can get a lot of goods on a big truck. So, say a truck delivering from Bkk to Chiang Mai travels 800km each way, that's 1600bt extra on top of yesterday's prices.

(assuming the truck returns empty) Divide that between every item on the truck. Sweet FA. Don't let shopkeepers, suppliers etc kid you otherwise.

Edited March 23, 2005 by AndyW

[taxexile]

the government should have increased the price of normal petrol by 3 baht , and left diesel alone.

retrieved it from the fuel companies as an extra tax and used it to keep a subsidy on diesel.

normal petrol is mostly used by privately owned regular cars and high end euro and jap imports , those are the users that can limit their journeys if they wish and more easily afford the 3 baht rise

diesel is used for public transport and transport of goods , hard to limit those journeys.

then there would be no excuse for the price rises that we will start to see very soon

[AndyW]

the government should have increased the price of normal petrol by 3 baht , and left diesel alone.

retrieved it from the fuel companies as an extra tax and used it to keep a subsidy on diesel.

normal petrol is mostly used by privately owned regular cars and high end euro and jap imports , those are the users that can limit their journeys if they wish and more easily  afford the 3 baht rise

diesel is used for public transport and transport of goods ,  hard to limit those journeys.

then there would be no excuse for the price rises that we will start to see very soon

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Or they should've let diesel price float along with petrol 6 months ago, but still with some capping. That way they could've saved the nation's coffers some cash, whilst allowing prices to rise naturally with small incremental rises. What they've done is put off all rises in fuel costs until after the election (what a surprise), but who knows the damage that will be caused now. If they can't control greedy suppliers, shopkeepers trying to blame big rises on diesel hike, inflation will soar - but no doubt wages wont. Total cock up. And oil is continuing to rise in price....

[RDN]

....it will mean another 3 passengers in the back of pickups!!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Nah.. plenty of room left:

[Darkling]

put the price up to 50 baht per ltr

force cars and badly maintained buses off the road and force people into using the sky train and subways

1 car 1 person mentality is pre 2000

car pooling etc is the go

1 mum driving 5 neighbourhood kids to the same school

think people think

no too hard - maikow chai

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Does sky train allow one ton of veg per passenger or should we just tell the farmers not to grow anything anymore.

[Darkling]

You cant deliver your goods to market in Ayuttaya on the sky train or subway.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Sorry i didnt read your post before replying my self. Well said.

[Darkling]

Don`t forget whose fault all this will be. Remember the Baht falling in 97 that was the World banks fault. This will all be the `Falangs` fault look out for lynchings.

[Darkling]

I wonder how soon it will be before Taxi fares are raised?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

And they run on gas!!!

[penzman]

..Another example is thinner. Check out the bottles next time you're at the hardware store. The bottles look like soy sauce bottles and they are only 3/4 full.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Same with varnish. When I bought a bottle of each and noticed, my local hardware shop said it was for safety. Less explosive as there is more room for expansion. say wha??

I just had to laugh it off....

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Good one! Told that to my friend who owns a hardware shop and he burst out laughing.

He then weighed a box of screws that used to weigh 1kg. They are now shipped with 800 grams worth of screws now.