The price of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) in the local market remains unchanged at its previous high despite a substantial decline in its price in the global market.
State-run Saudi Aramco has cut its February contract price for propane at $970 a tonne, down $40 from the January level, an industry source said, according to Mubasher.info
Butane prices for February 2014 were also cut to $970 a tonne, down $50 from January level of $1020. The prices provide a benchmark against which Middle East sales of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) to Asia are priced.
"The propane and butane with the newly (February) adjusted price will hopefully reach the seaport by middle of this month and the adjustment of LPG price will be happen after that," Petredec Elpiji Ltd General Manager Md Saidul Islam told the FE.
Mr Islam said, "We did not fix the reduced price yet. We can reduce the price any time after getting the new shipment for February."
Plant gate prices of 12 kg LPG cylinder of Kleenheat or Petragaz is now Tk 1,500, Bashundhara Gas Tk 1,501, Total Gaz Tk 1,480 and Jamuna Gas Tk 1,484.
Earlier, the according to Bloomberg News, Saudi Aramco cut its January contract price for LPG, a company official said on December 31. It set propane at US$ 1,010 per tonne, down $90 from last month, the official said, asking not to be identified due to internal policy. Aramco cut butane by $205 to $1,020 a tonne for January.
In two months-January and February-contract price, around $130 reduce on per tonne of propane while $255 on per tonne of butane.
Regarding this issue, Bashundhara LP Gas Ltd and Sunderban Industrial Complex general manager Md Jahidul Islam said, "The price of LPG slightly reduced in last two contract prices but November contract price was high and December's so high."
"In December $225 increased on per tonne of propane and $310 increased on per tonne. The contract price of propane for November increased by $55 per tonne while butane by $65 per tonne."
He said, "The price of LPG for the local market supposed to be increased by Tk200 to Tk250 per cylinder as per the December contract price, but all the LPG companies increased only Tk50 per cylinder.
On the other hand, the sale of LPG dropped around 40 per cent during October to December following transportation disruption due to political unrest, Mr Islam said.
LPG is mainly imported from Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore and China.
Mr Islam said, "With the international contract price we have to pay premier to the suppliers. The premier includes supplier profit, port bills, freight and others. We have to pay $200 to $300 on per tonne of imported LPG."
"We are selling the January stock as it reached in February first week. The February stock will come to middle of this month and after that the price of local LPG might be revised," he also said.
