Petronas Dagangan upbeat on LPG market

KUALA LUMPUR: Petronas Dagangan Bhd, which aims to maint a i n its market leadership position in the l iquef ied pet roleum gas ( LPG) market in Malaysia, is upbeat on the sector’s outlook given the country’s growing population.

LPG Business Divi sion General Ma n a g e r , Ramzulhakim Ramli, said the LPG market in the country was still experiencing positive growth when compared with other countries, which were already saturated.

“We do see growth in the market whereby last year, it was 1.5 per cent. Usually, growth in the LPG market depends on the population growth,” he told reporters after a briefing on safe handling of cylinder gas, adding that it has 50 per cent market share in the local LPG market currently.

For the thi rd quar ter ended Sept 30, 2017, Petronas Dagangan’s LPG business recorded a 46 per cent increase in gross profit in line with a five per cent increase in volume.

During the safety briefing earlier, Petronas Dagangan said, the hose and regulator for each cylinder gas must be changed every two years and five years, respectively, and it emphasised the importance of using hose and regulator that were approved by SIRIM and the Energy Commission.

Petronas Dagangan said it also strongly discouraged the use of transparent hoses made of plastic as it could easily leak and cause fire.

While LPG cylinders did not have any expiry dates, t hey must go through requal i f ication process to ensure their integrity, it said.

“For a Petronas gas cylinder, requalification process must be done after 11 years of its manufacturing date and then every six years after that,” it said.

LPG cylinders are included in the government’s list of price control items, whereby the retail price of C12 LPG cyl inders are RM2 2 . 8 0 and C14 at RM26.60, not including delivery charges. — Bernama