Petrol companies’ profit margins appear to have increased more than 50 per cent in under a year, while drivers have been forking out $2.30 a litre for regular unleaded.
The indicative retail margin (IRM) for profit on regular 91 unleaded increased from 31.8 cents (c) per litre on April 5 last year to 49.7c on February 26 this year across greater Brisbane, according to motoring group RACQ.
That’s an increase of 56.3 per cent. The figures were taken from the first seven days of the upward stage of the price cycle.
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“What we looked at was the price retailers jumped to in Brisbane and compared that to the average wholesale price,” RACQ economist Ian Jeffreys told 7NEWS.
“In the last price hike, they jumped up about 50 cents per litre above wholesale.
“Going back 18 months, we were only seeing that jump to be about 36 cents per litre.”
The motoring group claims IRMs increased at all but one of the seven price cycles recorded since April 5, 2023. Petrol price cycles tend to occur across approximate six-week periods.
Before then, IRMs had been decreasing across price cycles from October 2022 when they were 38.4c/l, according to RACQ.
It remains unclear what has sparked petrol companies to increase their profit margins.
“We are concerned that those margins are creeping up over time,” Jeffreys said.
“At this point in the cycle, the margins are at the highest point we’ve ever seen.
“We are at the stage that if this continues, we would be looking at some sort of price-control regulation.
“If the current trend continues, if we continue to see prices this high — and that margin of 50c or greater — we would be asking the government to look into some sort of price regulation.”
The majority of petrol retailers in greater Brisbane were selling unleaded petrol at about $2.30 a litre this week, Jeffreys said.
He said prices will remain as such for about the next week, before prices start to trend downwards.