Gasoline readjustment was lower than expected, says Abicom

The president of the Brazilian Association of Fuel Importers (Abicom), Sérgio Araújo, considered the increase in the price of gasoline announced this Tuesday morning (24) by Petrobras, insufficient to open a window for importing fuel. As of Wednesday (25th) the price of gasoline for distributors at the company’s refineries will rise from R$3.08 to R$3.31 per liter, an increase of R$0.23 per liter.

According to Araújo, the price in the Gulf of Mexico, used as a reference to measure the import parity (PPI), a policy practiced by the state-owned company since 2016, was, before the increase, about R$ 0.55 per liter on average above the price commercialized in the Brazilian market.

“There was still room for a new increase, we expected a greater readjustment. Since Petrobras announced the last readjustment, 50 days ago, gasoline prices have already risen by R$ 0.61 per liter in the Gulf”, informed the president of Abicom.

Petrobras’ last readjustment for gasoline was a drop of 6.11%, on December 7 last year. According to Araújo, the window for imports has already closed for 13 days.

In the case of diesel, which was not readjusted by the state-owned company, the gap in relation to the international market is 9%, which could lead to an increase of R$ 0.45 per liter to reach parity, in the calculation of the entity.

Petrobras said in a note that this increase “accompanies the evolution of reference prices and is consistent with Petrobras’ pricing practice, which seeks to balance its prices with the market, but without passing on to domestic prices the conjunctural volatility of quotations and the exchange rate”.