“There could be slight growth this year for autogas, because this is cheaper than gasoline or diesel fuel, but a drop is expected for small bulk and gas bottles, due to the sharpening of the crisis,” said representatives of the Romanian Association for Liquefied Petroleum Gas (ARGPL).
Andrei Nestor, Marketing and Sales Manager of Primagaz Romania, a brand through which the Dutch SHV group, world leader for LPG, is present on the local market, explained that in the first half of the year, consumption of LPG in household bottles dropped some 10 percent, and this decline is expected to continue for the remainder of the year. Primagaz Romania presently has a 9 percent share of the local LPG market, while on the household bottle segment it claims 16 percent, according to own estimates.
The officials of Rompetrol Gas, the company that acquired Crimbo’s autogas segment last year, indicated a few months ago that the LPG market dropped 15 percent in the January-May 2009 period, compared to the same period in 2008.
ButanGas Romania, another important player on the local market posted a drop in turnover of 35 percent in the first half of the year, to some €28 million.
On the Romanian LPG market, household bottles make up 55 percent, followed by autogas, at 35 percent, and small bulk at 10 percent, with main players Petrom, Rompetrol and ButanGas.
