MOSCOW (MRC) -- Indian state refiners’ daily gasoline and gasoil sales declined by about a fifth in May from a month earlier as lockdowns to curb the second deadly wave of COVID-19 hit industrial activities and consumption, reported Reuters with reference to preliminary data.
Daily gasoline sales in May fell by about 19% from April while diesel consumption, which is linked to industrial activity and accounts for over two-fifths of India’s fuel demand, fell by 19.9%, data compiled by state refiners showed.
India’s factory activity growth slowed significantly in May as a rise in coronavirus cases whacked new orders and output, the Nikkei Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index compiled by IHS Markit showed.
Rising retail prices of gasoline and gasoil along with lockdowns hit fuel demand in May, said an official at one of the refiners. He hoped fuel consumption would soon start improving as the number of infections is declining and states are gradually easing restrictions.
Indian fuel demand had recovered to near pre-pandemic levels in March but has been sliding since April owing to a resurgence in infections, prompting Indian refiners to cut crude processing and imports.
State companies - Indian Oil Corp, Hindustan Petroleum Corp and Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd - own about 90% of India’s retail fuel outlets.
Domestic fuel sales by state retailers, however, were higher versus a year earlier when there was a nationwide lockdown.
As MRC wrote before, the rapid increase in COVID-19 cases in India has led to various travel restrictions, which reduced the consumption of transportation fuels such as gasoline and diesel. As a result, EIA revised down its forecast for petroleum consumption in India in the May Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO). EIA estimates that petroleum consumption in India declined by 0.4 million barrels per day (b/d) (8%) to 4.7 million b/d between March and April.
We remind that Indian Oil Corp, India's top refiner, cut crude processing to average at 84% of overall capacity from 96% in April as a devastating second wave of COVID-19 dented fuel demand, reported. Domestic sales of gasoil and gasoline by Indian state refiners plunged by a fifth in the first half of May from a month earlier, preliminary data showed, as lockdowns to curb COVID-19 cases hit industrial activities and consumption.
Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 576,270 tonnes in the first three month of 2021, up by 4% year on year. Low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) shipments increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market totalled 410,890 tonnes in January-March 2021, up by 56% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased.
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