The Competition Council has just made public its reporting relating to the monitoring of commitments made by wholesale diesel and gasoline distribution companies within the framework of the transactional agreements concluded between the two parties. This report, dedicated to the second quarter of 2024, offers a detailed overview of the practices of the nine main operators in the sector. Here are the details.
Margins falling, but still substantial
For diesel, the average gross margin stood at 1.21 dirham per liter, with notable fluctuations:
- The lowest margin was recorded at 1.05 DH/L, the highest reached 1.34 DH/L.
- For gasoline, the gross margin was higher on average, reaching 1.79 dirham per liter, with extremes between 1.54 DH/L and 2.01 DH/L.
Despite this drop, margins remain significant and underline the ability of operators to maintain comfortable profitability, even in a context of fluctuating international prices.
Compared to the first quarter of 2024, gross margins recorded a significant decrease:
- For diesel, they went from 1.46 DH/L to 1.21 DH/L, a reduction of 25 cents per liter.
- For gasoline, they decreased from 2.07 DH/L to 1.79 DH/L, representing a drop of 28 cents per liter.
These declines reflect the impact of variations in international quotations on supply costs and the margins charged by distributors.
The second quarter of 2024 was marked by a two-stage dynamic in the evolution of margins:
- A significant initial decline from April to the end of May during which margins experienced a significant drop:
- For diesel, they went from 1.20 DH/L to 1.05 DH/L.
- For gasoline, they slipped from 2.01 DH/L to 1.54 DH/L.
- This decrease is explained by a drop in weighted purchasing costs, respectively to 9.90 DH/L for diesel and 11.25 DH/L for gasoline, which were partially passed on to the transfer prices to stations. -service.
- A gradual recovery in June where margins began to rise: diesel reached 1.24 DH/L and gasoline recorded an increase to 1.81 DH/L.
Diesel and Petrol: More than 14 billion dirhams of imports in Q2-2024
The report indicates that the 2nd quarter of 2024 was characterized by an increase in total imports of diesel and gasoline of 11.2% in volume, reaching nearly 1.65 million tonnes, and of 15.93% in value, reaching 14.03 billion dirhams year-on-year. The nine distribution companies concerned accounted for almost 85% of the volume and value of the total of these imports.
In terms of correlation, the market was marked by downward trends in international quotations, purchase costs and transfer prices (and indirectly sales prices) for the two fuels, with distinct levels of variation. . “Precisely, the CIF quotations recorded declines relatively greater than those of the purchasing costs, i.e. a difference of almost 27 cents for diesel and 66 cents for gasoline, which means that the purchasing costs of nine operators were less impacted by the significant drop in international quotations,” underlines the report.
However, “operators passed on almost all of the reductions in purchasing costs to their transfer prices applied at the national level, the average variation in transfer prices being around -0.66 DH/L for diesel and -0.33 DH/L for gasoline, levels of reductions almost similar to those observed in the purchasing costs of the distribution companies concerned, i.e. -0.71 DH/L for diesel and -0.21 DH/L for gasoline”.
The turnover of the nine distributors increased by 2.8%
The total sales of diesel and gasoline of the nine companies concerned reached 1.73 billion liters, of which 1.47 billion liters were diesel, accounting for more than 85%.
In terms of value, the turnover of the nine companies stood at MAD 18.94 billion during this 2nd quarter of 2024, up nearly 2.8% compared to the same period of the previous year (18 .44 billion dirhams in the 2nd quarter of 2023).
Regarding the evolution of the service station network, the total number increased from 3,411 at the end of the 1st quarter of 2024 to 3,447 at the end of the 2nd quarter of this year, or 36 new service stations operating on the market. Of these 3,447 service stations, the nine companies concerned have 2,543 stations (74% of the total), an increase of 28 new stations compared to the figure of 2,515 service stations recorded at the end of the first quarter of 2024.
