Latest News:  

English>>Business

Fuel price system may change

(Shanghai Daily)

13:48, March 07, 2013

CHINA is considering increasing the frequency of fuel price adjustments, and dropping a 4 percent trigger point, as part of plans to reform its pricing mechanism, the top planning official said yesterday.

Under the current system, the government can adjust fuel prices if the 22 working days' moving average of Brent, Dubai and Indonesia's Cinta crude benchmarks rises or falls more than 4 percent.

"The period is too long," Zhang Ping, director of the National Development and Reform Commission, which sets energy prices in China, said in Beijing.

The NDRC plans to shorten the period and remove the 4 percent trigger so fuel prices can better reflect changes in the global crude oil markets, he said.

The drawbacks of the current mechanism became evident last month when the NDRC raised fuel prices on the mainland while, the same day, Taiwan reduced them.

The NDRC raised prices to reflect higher crude rates despite a retreat in the days prior to the adjustment. CPC Corp, Taiwan's oil company, reviews rates weekly.

The simultaneous changes underscored the need for an improved pricing mechanism.

A new mechanism is expected to cut the 22 working days period to 10, according to analysts and industry officials. It may be unveiled after the National People's Congress, analysts at Sanford C. Bernstein said.

ICIS C1 Energy expects there still to be a limit in fuel price changes to reduce the impact on motorists if crude rates surge.

We recommend:

Beihai, a Rising Young Star

China's jumbo jet C919 expected to fly

More loans extended to support agriculture

Direct trade in RMB increases in Thailand

Energy trade surplus for US

China seeks economic transformation


Email|Print|Comments(Editor:HuangBeibei、Liang Jun)

Leave your comment0 comments

  1. Name

  

Selections for you


  1. Navel landing ships perform military tasks

  2. Newly-recruited female soldiers in training

  3. 83rd Geneva Int'l Motor Show opens

  4. A little man’s struggle for job

  5. Art schools exams in Chinese style

  6. Foxes seek food from oil workers in NE China

  7. Chinese and overseas arts serve and return

  8. Old Shanghai posters in the Minguo period

  9. U.S. enjoys clean energy trade surplus with China

  10. Energy trade surplus for US

Most Popular

Opinions

  1. Books for youngsters' the fastest-growing genre
  2. Life of the never-touch-a-pan generation
  3. Chinese films ought to tell Chinese stories
  4. Lei Feng spirit never out of date
  5. Call to relax adoption criteria
  6. China has its own Golden Raspberry Awards
  7. Chinese tourists reflect nation's character
  8. Spoiled brats spring from pampering parents
  9. A smile can succeed where a scowl fails
  10. Reducing income inequality an urgent task

What’s happening in China

Donations for sick child star's care arouse mixed reaction

  1. SUV theft baby's body found: Police
  2. Shanghai to move up rich list
  3. Shanghai launches site to apply for scholarships
  4. Explosion in residential building kills 2, injures 11
  5. Nationwide ID data network must be strengthened