Apr 18: The increase in domestic sales volumes of OMCs has fallen short of growth in  domestic petroleum consumption over the past few years
8This has been driven by persisting loss of market share in auto fuels to private players since deregulation of diesel and a substantial increase in import of fuels such as petcoke by consuming industries directly or through trade channels.
8Given that OMCs produce a large volume of petcoke, they have to work hard with the government to prevent cheap imports from saturating the market so as to be able to hold on to their markets even as they mull expensive petcoke gasification plans.
8Going back to market share, in 2017-18, OMC's auto fuels sales have grown 2-3% slower than the growth in domestic consumption indicating continued loss of market share to private players.
8But private players cannot draw satisfaction out of these figures.
8If oil prices continue to rise, the coming general elections and political expediency will force the government to pull the plug by reimposing price caps on petrol and diesel. And that won't be good news for the industry
8It is a slippery slope and private companies cannot take their market share gains for granted.
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