POL sales for the month of December 2016 clocked-in at two million tons, reflecting a growth of 23 percent on year-on-year basis and 1.8 percent on month-on-month basis. With December 2016 end; this translates into cumulative first half of FY17 sales number of over 13 million tons, reflecting an increase of 18.2 percent on year-on-year basis.

Of the key products, white oil sales continued to perform well with motor spirit (MS) and high speed diesel (HSD) posting robust growth of 16.7 percent and 23.7 percent on year-on-year basis respectively. "Both MS and HSD sales will continue to perform well given increasing industrial activity with China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) serving providing the major stimulus," Faizan Ahmed, an analyst at JS Global Capital said.

During December 2016, FO sales also rebounded with YoY/MoM increase of 30.4 percent/35.5 percent mainly due to increased reliance on FO based power generation during the ongoing winter season (canal closures). "Going forward however, especially post FY18, we expect FO sales to slowdown with shift in power generation mix towards coal," he added.

Hascol Petroleum (Hascol) remained clear outperformer during the month by posting staggering increase of 67.2 percent in volumes. Pakistan State Oil (PSO) and Shell Pakistan (SHEL) followed with increase in volumes of 25.8 percent and 14.5 percent respectively. In terms of market share, Hascol stood out as a clear outperformer with MS and HSD share of 9.5 percent (1ppt increase vis-à-vis November 2016) and 12.1 percent (over 4ppt increase vis-à-vis November 2016) respectively.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2017