Oil price hike leading to increasing purchase of diesel

This article was published by the Taiwan Headlines on April 10, 2006. It reports that the retail prices of gasoline and diesel fuel were raised by NT$1 (US$0.029) per liter in Taiwan in February 2006. As a result, the sales volume of diesel saw a sharp annual rise of 18 percent in the first two months of 2006, while the corresponding percentage for gasoline only rose 1.7 percent.

According to the government's Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, the price hikes for gasoline resulted in an increasing number of consumers who turn to diesel. For example, in 2005, the sales volume for diesel posted an annual rise of only 8.7 percent, while the corresponding percentage for gasoline rose 2.2 percent.

However, gasoline is still in major demand in the market. In 2005, the total sales volume of gasoline amounted to 10.55 million kiloliters, about thee times of the corresponding volume of 3.65 million kiloliters of diesel. In the first two months of 2006, the sales price of gasoline increased by 9.4 percent from the corresponding figure of the previous year. Gasoline and other oil products now account for 12.5 percent of Taiwan's commodity price index.