Concerns grow over fuel companies reinstating price cycle
“SEQ’s fuel price cycle was abandoned by retailers in March following the start of the Middle East conflict and it hasn’t returned. But it now seems fuel companies are trying to bring the cycle back,” Dr Jeffreys said.
RACQ’s June Quarterly fuel report shows motorists have been getting a fairer deal at the bowser without the price cycle.
“The collapse in the price cycle in the last quarter coincided with a substantial drop in indicative retail margins which estimates how much stations charged motorists on top of the wholesale price,” Dr Jeffreys said.
“Between March and June fuel retailers were charging an average retail margin of 10.7 cents per litre (cpl), half that of the previous quarter (21.2cpl).
“South East Queensland hasn’t seen retail margins this low since 2019.”
Dr Jeffreys was concerned if fuel companies reinstated the price cycle, it would result in the return of unfair retail margins and severe and sudden price increases.
“Since 2010, the region’s motorists have been at the mercy of fuel retailers maintaining an increasingly long-price cycle which in recent years has typically lasted for six weeks and seen overnight price hikes of up to 60cpl,” he said.
“Over the last few days, we’ve seen more and more stations returning to hiking behaviour with some stations now charging 40cpl more than others in the same suburb. That's about $20 extra to fill an average 50 litre tank.
“If fuel companies succeed in reinstating the cycle, Queensland must look to introduce market regulation quickly to shorten and flatten the cycle to make it fairer for motorists.”
RACQ will continue to model potential fuel price cycle regulation methods and consult with decision makers on the issue.
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