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http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/ ... 20110131-1aajf.html
Supermarkets accused of raising petrol prices to cover bread, milk cuts
January 31, 2011
Comments 30
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A fuel monitoring agency has accused the major supermarkets of slugging motorists with higher petrol prices to subsidise their milk and bread war.
FUELtrac general manager Geoff Trotter said petrol prices rose by 19 cents a litre to more than $1.40 a litre over the weekend.
"In what appears to be a pretty co-ordinated move, it appears that Shell Coles express decided to move their service stations up in Brisbane, the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast," Mr Trotter said.
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"They moved up to a price of 143.9 cents a litre and this was at a time the Shell wholesale price had actually come down.
"The effective Shell wholesale price was 124.37, which meant they were making a retail margin of over 19 cents a litre, which is extraordinarily high."
The last time the petrol prices were above $1.40 a litre was in mid-2008 when the Australian dollar was about 98 US cents and the West Texas Crude price reached a record $US148 a barrel.
The price for a barrel of West Texas intermediate crude oil was about $US88, with the Australian dollar at 99 US cents, Mr Trotter said.
The dominance of the supermarket giants in food and petrol gave them significant power in the market.
"I think there is a connection between their grocery activities and their petrol activities because they control a significant market share of groceries and around 60 per cent of the retail petrol market," Mr Trotter said.
"If there is an opportunity for them to cross subsidise, if they are giving away margin on bread and milk, fuel is a wonderful way to recover that margin.
"There was nothing happening in the Australian wholesale price or international prices to explain that jump across those markets to that level, except that Coles and Woolworths are involved in a price war in bread and milk." |
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发表于 1-2-2011 11:45:20
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发表于 1-2-2011 15:25:54
