LP gas heater
  • The global economic slowdown due to the novel coronavirus has seen fuel prices tumble, and South Africa will see the impact beyond just the petrol price.
  • For April the maximum price for residential LP gas is down between 14% and 16%, depending on where you are – just as seasonal demand typically spikes due to colder weather.
  • The price of illuminating paraffin is also down, by more than a fifth.
  • For more stories go to www.BusinessInsider.co.za.

It's not just the petrol price that is dropping sharply due to the Covid-19 disaster slowing down the world economy.

In April the maximum price consumers will pay for LP gas will be between 14% and 16% lower than it was in March, price regulations published by the department of energy show.

Depending on where in the country they live, home users will pay as little as R19.68 per kilogram for their gas, and the maximum inland tariff tops out at R24.11 per kilogram.

April is typically when cold weather first bites throughout South Africa, leading to a sudden spike in demand for 9KG gas bottle refills as homeowners dust off the gas heaters.

In April last year consumers in some parts of South Africa paid up to R27.87 per kilogram for LP gas, and by June prices had breached R28 per kilogram in some zones.

The huge drop in demand for fuel of all sorts, as global industry slows down and many countries remain under lockdown, is expected to keep prices low at least through the South African winter.

The price of illuminating paraffin dropped even more than LP gas month-on-month, by 22% to R8.41 per litre until at least 5 May, when the next price adjustment is due.

The petrol price decreases by between R1.76 (for 93) and and R1.88 (for 95) per litre on Wednesday, when the April adjustments in the regulated price come into force.

That is in part due to a price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia, as demand for their oil plummeted amid airline shutdowns and a decrease in manufacturing in many industries reliant on oil and energy, as the heating-oil-hungry northern hemisphere moves into summer.


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