16 July 2009;business-standard.com:New Delhi: After increasing it four times in a row, the state-run oil firms today cut jet fuel prices by 5.7 per cent on easing international rates. Aviation Turbine Fuel rates in Delhi were lowered by Rs 2,221 per kilolitre to Rs 36,338 per kl, effective midnight tonight, an official of Indian Oil Corp (IOC) said. Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum had in the past two months raised ATF rates four times on firming international oil prices. Jet fuel rates were Rs 31,614.51 per kl on May 1 and in four instalments they were raised to Rs 38,557.56 per kl by July 1. “International rates have eased since,” he said. The basket of crude oil India buys has averaged for July at $63.42 per barrel. The July average was lower than $69.12 a barrel average price of Indian basket of crude for June. It was also lower than $69.57 a barrel average in the second fortnight of June based on which jet fuel rates were hiked by 6 per cent from July 1. On July 1, jet fuel rates were increased by Rs 2,306 per kl in Delhi to Rs 38,557.56 per kl. In Mumbai, home to the nation’s busiest airport, the rate will come down from Rs 39,789.02 per kl to Rs 37,475 per kl. The decline in ATF price, which constitutes 40 per cent of airlines’ operating cost, will ease some pressure off the cash-strapped domestic carriers. Jet fuel in Kolkata will be cheaper at Rs 44,411 per kl from Rs 46,710.92 per kl, while in Chennai the price has been reduced by Rs 2,360 per kl to Rs 40,164 per kl. ATF prices had peaked to Rs 71,028.26 per kl (in Delhi) in August last year on international crude prices touching a historic high of $147 a barrel. But subsequently the rates had come down, slashed every month till October and twice a month from November. The three firms revise jet fuel rate every fortnight based on trends in international markets.
16 July 2009;business-standard.com:Swaraj Baggonkar:Mumbai: Bajaj Auto has phased out the Pulsar 200 model to make way for the new Pulsar 220, as both were priced on a par, despite the latter being more powerful The new Pulsar 220, launched three weeks earlier, is a refurbished version of the earlier model launched in December 2006. The Pulsar 200 was launched in January 2007 and carried an ex-showroom price of about Rs 70,000. However, to take on competing products in the premium category (priced upwards of Rs 65,000) with the likes of Yamaha FZ16, Fazer and R15, Hero Honda’s Karizma, TVS Apache 180 and the Honda CBF Stunner PGM-FI, Bajaj has slashed the price of Pulsar 220 by more than Rs 15,000. It will now be sold at Rs 70,000, ex-showroom. S Sridhar, chief executive (two-wheelers), Bajaj Auto, said, “The carburettored version of the new Pulsar 220, which has been launched, offers higher power and better performance at a much lesser price. So, continuing with the Pulsar 200 was not possible, as it was priced in the similar range. We wanted to offer the buyers a better bike at an affordable rate.” The bike, however, is still available in select showrooms at the earlier price without any discounts. “Some units of the Pulsar 200 are available with us and there will be no more supply of it from the company,” said a Mumbai-based dealer of the Probiking showroom, Bajaj’s speciality outlet that sells only premium bikes. The Pulsar 200 has a 198.8cc engine, which delivers 18 bhp power, while the Pulsar 220 has a 220cc engine, which generates 21.04 bhp of peak power. Although the new Pulsar 220 is heavier than the Pulsar 200 by five kg, at 150 kg, it is faster than the smaller sibling at 144 km/hour, as compared to 130 km/hour. The company is bullish on the new Pulsar to spruce sales beyond the 48,062 units of the whole Pulsar range sold by it in June. Te Pulsar range contributes to about half the company’s monthly sales, but a bulk of the profitability Currently, the company produces three models under the Pulsar brand — Pulsar 150, Pulsar 180 and Pulsar 220. All the three models have only recently gone through a face-lift labelled as the ‘2009 edition’. Industry analysts say the segment has seen high growth post the slowdown, as a result of pent-up demand of earlier months. According to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers, the growth in the segment of motorcycles with engines more than 125cc in size witnessed a growth of more than 16 per cent, at 472,599 units, in the first quarter, as compared to about 12 per cent growth, at 1,205,172, seen in the less than 125cc segment. Meanwhile, in a bid to increase its market share in the 100 cc category, Bajaj Auto today launched its popular selling model “Discover” in the entry level segment. Bajaj held a marketshare of 43 per cent in the premium 150 cc segment contributed by sales of its premium bike ‘Pulsar’ and a 9 per cent market share in the entry level segment through “Platina” as of April-June 2009. With the latest launch, the company hoped to garner a significant market share in the segment this fiscal, Bajaj Auto Ltd Deputy General Manager Chandrasekar R told reporters in Chennai at the unveiling of the bike at a media conference.
15 July 2009;economictimes.indiatimes.com:NEW DELHI: Reliance Industries, owner of world's biggest oil complex, aims to directly sell fuel in the United States, the world's biggest oil consumer, a top company official said on Tuesday. Reliance recently commissioned a second crude unit at its 580,000 barrels per day refinery. Full scale commissioning of the new plant, sited next to the group's existing 660,000 bpd refinery, will turn Jamnagar into the world's biggest complex processing 1.24 million bpd of crude. When asked if Reliance has initiated the process for direct sale of its fuel in the US, the official, who did not wish to be identified, said: "Not yet, but the objective is always there." The official, however, did not specify any timeline for the planned move. US-based refiners have been concerned that a raft of new federal environmental regulations could make it easier for overseas competitors to take a larger share of the US fuel market. The top US energy lobby group, the American Petroleum Institute, said Reliance would do well in the US because American refiners are bound by tough federal environmental regulations, based on the climate bill that just passed in the House of Representatives. "As US refiners are penalized by the inequitable provisions of the proposed climate legislation, the US will actually be more reliant on fuel imports from places like India where refiners will not be under the same restrictions," said API spokeswomen Karen Matusic. "The international protections in the House climate bill for energy-intensive, trade-exposed industries specifically exclude US refiners," she said. Reliance's new refinery is configured to produce fuel that meets stringent US specifications. "Reliance will try and have the flexibility to sell both directly in the US and through third parties. We hear in the past they had tried to acquire a relatively small fuel retail chain in (the) US," a trade source said. The Reliance official said his firm had started supplying fuel to the US refiner Hess Corp. Trade sources said Reliance had sold a 66,000 tonnes cargo of 10 ppm diesel to Hess in May and about 60,000 tonnes of 90 RON petrol to the the US refiner in June. Reuters in March reported that the Indian refiner had signed its first-ever term contract with Hess for sale of at least 4 diesel cargoes of 65,000 tonnes. "We are selling in the US market and we intend to continue doing that," the official, who could not be named told reporters. Reliance has already leased product storage from Hess, the official said, but he did not specify the volumes. To market its products, the firm has opened trading desks in Singapore, London and the US. In February, its Singapore trade team left the firm. But Reliance has revived its trading desk by internally transferring 3-4 officials to Singapore. Reliance also owns trading firms in Dubai. It manages trading operations through its Mumbai office.
HPCL-Mittal pays Rs 60 crore to insure its under-construction refinery
15 July 2009;business-standard.com:Mumbai:HPCL-Mittal Energy Limited (HMEL) has paid Rs 60 crore to insure its planned refinery in Bathinda in Punjab against risks during the construction phase. HMEL is a joint venture between Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) and Mittal Energy Investment, Singapore, an LN Mittal Group company “Building a 1,000-km pipeline from Mundra to Bathinda and constructing a crude oil terminal involves major risks,” said a senior executive of a private insurance company. While New India Assurance is the lead insurer with 75 per cent stake, Oriental Insurance has a stake of 25 per cent. The company is yet to finalise the percentage of reinsurance support it will seek from the national reinsurer, General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC). But sources say the chunk will go to GIC. Generally, insurance companies do not carry large risks from projects, especially refineries and power plants. They pass over 90 per cent of the risk to reinsurance companies, either GIC or to international re-insurers. Industry sources said there had not been any large claim from companies during their construction period in the past. The total insurance package is around Rs 18,000 crore. According to insurance brokers, the property cover will insure the plant against fire and other perils and loss of profit in case of delay in the commencement of the business. Covering oil risks has resulted in losses for insurers in the past. However, last year, insurance companies did not see any large claim from this sector. The size of the insurance market for fire and engineering has shrunk 2 per cent to Rs 3,420 crore in terms of premium in 2008-09 as against a year ago.
'Taxes, duties comprise 50% of petrol price in Delhi'
13 July 2009;business-standard.com:New Delhi: Almost half of the retail price of petrol of Rs 44.63 a litre in the national capital comprises taxes and duties, Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Jitin Prasada said today. After the Rs 4 per litre increase in the petrol price and Rs 2 a litre hike in the diesel rate announced earlier this month, the retail selling price of the two auto fuels in Delhi is Rs 44.63 per litre and Rs 32.87 a litre, respectively. The petrol price includes excise duty of Rs 13.75 per litre and VAT accounts for Rs 7.44 a litre. Another 46 paise a litre is because of customs duty, taking the total of taxes and duties in the retail selling price to Rs 21.65 a litre, Prasada informed the Rajya Sabha in the national capital. As for diesel, taxes and duties make up for a relatively low Rs 8.11, or about one-fourth of the retail selling price. Local VAT contributes Rs 3.90 a litre to the diesel price while excise duty makes up for Rs 3.71 per litre. Besides, the customs duty component comes to 50 paise a litre, he added. Currently, petrol attracts a basic central excise duty of Rs 5.35 a litre plus Rs 6 a litre special additional excise duty. Diesel on the other hand an excise duty of Rs 1.60 per litre. Besides, Rs 2 a litre is levied on petrol and diesel as road cess. VAT in Delhi is 12.5 per cent and 4 per cent on petrol and diesel, respectively. Customs duty on the two fuels is at 2.5 per cent.
China overtakes US to become world's largest auto market
13 July 2009;dailypioneer.com:Beijing: China has for the first time overtaken the United States as the world's largest auto market with sales of locally-made vehicles surging 17.7 per cent to 6.1 million units in the first six months this year. Sales of China's domestically made automobiles topped 1.14 million units in June, up 36.5 per cent over the figure a year earlier, the fourth month in a row surpassing the 1.1 million units mark, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) said. China's vehicle sales in June rose to 1.14 million, the second-highest month to date after April's 1.15 million units, out of which passenger car sales hit a monthly record of 872,900 units, it said. Total auto sales for the first half of the year (Jan- June) rose to 6.1 million, up 17.7 per cent from a year earlier, out-pacing the US market, where passenger car sales in the same period plunged to 4.8 million amid the economic slowdown. CAAM said sales of such automobiles topped 1.14 million units in June, an increase of 36.5 per cent on the year. This is the first time that sales of locally made automobiles surpassed 1.1 million units four months in a row, it said. China manufactured 15.2 per cent more automobiles in the first half of the year as compared to 2008, an increase CAAM said is due to a Government stimulus package to boost domestic spending. "The good performance by the automobile industry in the first half of this year is mainly because of the efficient measures China had put in place to counter the financial crisis, and the different stimulus policies targeting the automobile industry," CAAM said in its report. China unveiled a $585 billion stimulus package last November and 10 specific industry stimulus plans for autos, iron and steel, petrochemicals and other sectors this year to shore up the Chinese economy, Xinhua news agency noted. The association also said that while exports of automobiles remained in decline, it was "cautiously optimistic" about Chinese-made auto sales on the domestic market in the second half of 2009. It forecast that sales will exceed 11 million vehicles for the whole year, topping its earlier forecast of 10.2 million vehicles.
