January 9, 2013
Motorists paid on average 20 cents per litre more for diesel in December than they did just two years ago.
The RACQ’s latest monthly fuel report revealed that motorists paid an average of 149.2cpl for diesel last month, compared with an average of 129.4cpl in December 2010.
RACQ Executive Manager Public Policy Michael Roth said the price rise was partly due to an increase in diesel margins which were on average 4.8cpl higher than they were a year ago and 9.1cpl higher than in December 2010.
“While unleaded petrol is refined locally, much of our diesel is imported from Asia where demand has remained high and kept the prices up,” Mr Roth said.
“However, refiners, wholesalers and retailers have been steadily plumping up the total diesel margins over the past two years, pocketing some healthy profits by charging motorists more.”
Gympie sold the cheapest diesel throughout Queensland in December, at an average of 147.6cpl, which was 1.6cpl less than in Brisbane.
Diesel sold in Ipswich (147.9cpl), the Whitsundays (147.9cpl), Townsville (148.1cpl) and the Gold Coast (149.1cpl) was also cheaper than in Brisbane.
The diesel price in Kingaroy was 150.9cpl.
Mr Roth said diesel prices would most likely remain high throughout 2013 as demand in the large Asian economies continued to increase.
“The strong Australian dollar has protected us from even higher prices, so if the Asian economies stumble we may still see high diesel prices as our dollar may drop, increasing the price of imports,” he said.
