Expect higher diesel consumption in January than December: HPCL

In an interview to CNBC-TV18, MK Surana, CMD of HPCL spoke about the latest happenings in his company and sector.Below is the verbatim transcript of MK Surana’s interview to Prashant Nair and Ekta Batra on CNBC-TV18.Prashant: We know the good news in terms of marketing margin, price hikes, etc, what I want to understand is what has been the fuel consumption growth in the month of December? I remember speaking with you 10 days after November 8 and you said there was an initial spurt in terms of fuel sales and then especially diesel sales came off quite sharply. Could you give us the number for December?A: HPCL had a growth of around 6.1 percent and the industry had a growth of around 6 percent. Petrol there was a growth. As far as diesel is concerned, there was a little bit of de-growth of around 1.3 percent or so. HPCL had a lesser de-growth than the market; we had a de-growth of around 0.3 percent. So, diesel had been slightly flatter or slightly negative growth but the petrol had seen a positive growth.Prashant: I have the numbers for the month of November. November industry diesel growth was 11 percent and against 11 percent you are telling us that diesel consumption growth is minus 1.3 percent.A: Yes, so, it is not month-to-month, it is year-on-year.Prashant: I am saying the growth rate has come down from 11 percent to minus 1.3 percent.A: Yes, this month.Prshant: In the case of petrol I have the figure for the month of November, it was 14 percent and you are saying that 14 percent fuel growth has become 6.1 percent.A: Yes.Prashant: We are in the month of January now, it is too early, it is just five to six days, but is the December growth continuing in terms of sales or is there any pick up? There is no reason for any pick up, for any dramatic change, right?A: We need to see this. There was some impact because of the demonetisation on the overall movement of the goods, etc which is coming to normalcy now. December was expected to be a little bit dull. November pick up -- as I mentioned to you was that initially there was a euphoria to take the product, restock the product, etc so there was a sudden growth in two to three days. So, the average growth of November will be good. So, November was also an outlier to that extent. So, the question is that November also should not be a representative figure and December also should not be a representative figure.Prashant: You had told me that about 50 percent of diesel sales, where the impact is more severe, comes from trucks.A: Right.Prashant: We have anecdotal evidence in terms of the activity on the freight side, truck side that remains extremely depressed. So there is no reason to expect any big jump in the month of January. Even if you compare the absolute amount of diesel consumed, it should be pretty similar to December, not very different?A: It should be higher than December. I expect.For full discussion, watch accompanying video...