A petrol station closes in HCM City
The urgent meeting was held after many local petrol stations announced their closure.
From 6 am the same morning, the Comeco petrol station chain announced that they had run out of petrol to sell to customers.Besides Comeco, other petrol stations put up signs saying that they will stop selling petrol for maintenance for a short period.
A day earlier, the department received a document from Can Gio Trading and Service Joint Stock Company in which it stated it would suspend petrol sales shortly. The company explained that as a fuel distributor, it couldn't import supplies but had to buy products from local importers to supply its retail chain. However, as domestic and global fuel markets have experienced turbulence, leading to supply disruptions, fuel wholesalers had stopped supplying goods to retailers. Therefore, the company had run out of fuel to maintain its retail system, and it could temporarily cease operations soon. The chain currently has 17 petrol stations and 36 agents.
Speaking at the meeting, the director of the HCM City Department of Industry and Trade, Bui Ta Hoang Vu, said that the transportation of fuel from the central region to the southern region was facing difficulties due to flooding, which had affected fuel supplies to local stations.
"The fuel shortage has been reported at some petrol stations in the city and they have had to temporarily close," the official said. "But the situation has not lasted long at some of them which have resumed operation after several hours."
The department said that it has been coordinating with relevant agencies to audit stores that had run out of petrol but had not announced their status. If there are violations, they will be strictly handled according to regulations.
Out of the 550 petrol and oil retail stations operating in HCM City, only 5-6 stations have requested temporary closures for maintenance, rinsing out their storage tanks, and checking fire prevention systems. There have been no case outlets requesting a suspension of services.
Fuel supply shortages have also been reported in many other southern localities including Binh Duong, Binh Phuoc, Dong Nai, An Giang, and Dong Thap provinces.
According to Binh Duong Provincial Department of Industry and Trade Deputy Director Nguyen Thanh Ha, they have conducted an investigation into 16 local fuel traders that just ceased operations. Some of them said they had temporarily run out of supplies, while others were repairing their retail stations.
According to some experts, the current basis for calculating the price of imported petrol is outdated, making enterprises suffer more losses if they import more supplies. Banks have also tightened lending, so enterprises do not have enough capital to import petroleum products. As a result, these factors have contributed to scarce supply over the recent period and supply shortages for some retail distribution chains.
Domestic petrol supply only currently meets around 80 percent of market demand, a situation which can also be affected by the maintenance and repair of petroleum refineries which has frequently happened, causing a serious shortage of petrol supplies.
