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India's petrol and diesel sales soared in June during the start of the cropping season, summer travels and an overall pick up in economic activity, preliminary industry data showed. The start of the cropping season helped diesel demand register double-digit growth over the pre-pandemic period.
Diesel saw sales jumping 35.2 per cent year-on-year to 7.38 million tonnes in June. This was 10.5 per cent higher than sales in pre-pandemic June 2019 and 33.3 per cent more than June 2020. It was 11.5 per cent higher than 6.7 million tonnes of consumption during May this year.
Industry sources attributed the pick-up in diesel demand — which first rose above pre-pandemic levels in April — to higher consumption by the agriculture and transport sectors.
Petrol sales by state-owned fuel retailers, which control roughly 90 per cent of the market, at 2.8 million tonnes in June were 29 per cent higher than the same period last year when a devastating second Covid-19 wave wreaked havoc on the economy.
Consumption since lockdown in March 2020
Consumption was 36.7 per cent higher than the demand in June 2020 and 16.5 per cent more than 2.4 million tonnes of sales in the pre-Covid June 2019. Month-on-month sales were up 3.1 per cent, as per the preliminary data.
The government, on March 25, 2020, imposed a nationwide lockdown to control the spread of coronavirus. The complete lockdown, which halted mobility and crippled business, was slowly eased after two months.
Cooking gas, prices hiked by ₹103.50 per cylinder since March, saw sales rising by a marginal 0.23 per cent to 2.26 million tonnes in June. This was 9.6 per cent higher than the consumption in June 2020 when the government extended free cooking gas to the poor to help them tide over the hardships of the lockdown.
LPG consumption was 27.9 per cent more than June 2019 demand and 6 per cent higher than 1.77 million tonnes of sales in June 2021.
Jet fuel (ATF) sales more than doubled to 535,900 tonnes as the aviation sector opened up after two years. ATF consumption was 150.1 per cent more than June 2020 but 12.9 per cent lower than the pre-COVID sales of 615,400 tonnes in June 2019. Month-on-month sales were up 6 per cent.
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