The latest data from the Central Energy Fund (CEF) shows that petrol prices are now building for the single biggest jump in South Africa’s history, more than doubling the previous record.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Until now, the biggest petrol price hike over a single month in South Africa was in July 2022, when prices jumped by R2.57 per litre following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine a few months prior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, current recovery data from CEF shows that petrol prices are sitting with an under-recovery of between R4.68 and R5.20 per litre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The picture for diesel is even worse. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
With an under-recovery of R8.52 to R8.64 per litre, the looming hike will not only be the single biggest for the fuel type on record, but will also push it to its highest price point ever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The highest per-litre diesel price was recorded at R25.53 in July 2022. At the current trajectory, an R8.50+ price hike would push prices past R27 per litre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The tiniest consolation for petrol drivers is that prices are not yet projected to be at worst-ever levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The highest Petrol 95 has ever reached was R26.74 per litre in July 2022. At current recovery levels, April pricing would be at R25.50 per litre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These prices exclude the 21 cents per litre tax hike that is also scheduled to kick in from 1 April, pushing the price pain even further.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Making matters worse, the National Treasury says there is little room to offer relief or to cushion the blow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Treasury director-general Duncan Pieterse said this week that it would cost the government tens of millions of rand to offset the coming blow\u2014a weight the fiscus cannot currently bear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“You are either looking at no relief, or you\u2019re looking at a very small amount of relief,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These are the projected levels at the end of week 3:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fuel price recoveries have gone from bad to worse to terrible in March, as the war in the Middle East continues to sow chaos across commodity markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The biggest driver of the coming price hikes is oil, which has surged following the United States and Israel’s bombardment of Iran and subsequent retaliatory strikes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Key to the mess is the Strait of Hormuz. The strait is one of the world\u2019s most crucial energy chokepoints, where an average of about 20 million barrels per day is shipped through. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is roughly 20% of global petroleum liquids consumption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The war has cut shipping through the strait, with more recent escalations further choking vital ports in the surrounding regions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After trading below $60 a barrel at the start of the year, oil prices have now risen sharply to above $100 a barrel, currently trading around $107.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The market turmoil has also weakened the rand, ending its early-year winning streak as investors pull out of riskier emerging markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After trading below R16 to the dollar in February, the rand has marched back toward R17\/$, even breaching the level late on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Friday, the local unit recovered to around R16.80\/$, but remains on the back foot, adding further pressure on fuel price recoveries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is how the price changes are expected to reflect at the pumps (Diesel prices reflect wholesale, pump prices will differ), including and excluding the 21 cents per litre tax hikes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The latest data from the Central Energy Fund shows that petrol prices are now building for the single biggest jump in South Africa’s history, more than doubling the previous record.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":853523,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9874],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-854503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=854503"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854503\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":854504,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854503\/revisions\/854504"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/853523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=854503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=854503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=854503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Inland<\/strong><\/td> March Official<\/strong><\/td> April Expected<\/strong>
(excl. tax hike)<\/td>April Expected<\/strong>
(incl. 21cpl tax hike)<\/td><\/tr>93 Petrol<\/td> R20.19<\/td> R24.87<\/td> R25.08<\/td><\/tr> 95 Petrol<\/td> R20.30<\/td> R25.50<\/td> R25.71<\/td><\/tr> Diesel 0.05% (wholesale)<\/td> R18.53<\/td> R27.05<\/td> R27.26<\/td><\/tr> Diesel 0.005% (wholesale)<\/td> R18.60<\/td> R27.24<\/td> R27.45<\/td><\/tr> Illuminating Paraffin<\/td> R12.54<\/td> R23.12<\/td> –<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n Coastal<\/strong><\/td> March Official<\/strong><\/td> April Expected<\/strong>
(excl. tax hike)<\/td>April Expected<\/strong>
(incl. 21cpl tax hike)<\/td><\/tr>93 Petrol<\/td> R19.40<\/td> R24.08<\/td> R24.29<\/td><\/tr> 95 Petrol<\/td> R19.47<\/td> R24.67<\/td> R24.88<\/td><\/tr> Diesel 0.05% (wholesale)<\/td> R17.70<\/td> R26.22<\/td> R26.43<\/td><\/tr> Diesel 0.005% (wholesale)<\/td> R17.84<\/td> R26.48<\/td> R26.69<\/td><\/tr> Illuminating Paraffin<\/td> R11.52<\/td> R22.10<\/td> –<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"