Swimming against the tide
We commemorate today the 499th anniversary of the first circumnavigation of the globe on March 16, 1521 by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan. He was a maverick who “discovered” the Philippines after offering his navigational services to the Spanish empire.
The state-run National Quincentennial Committee, created in 2018 by virtue of Executive Order No. 55, is spearheading the public events next year, while the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines will lead the church’s celebration of the country’s five centuries of Christianization.
As the planet reels from disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, there are still a few silver linings in the economy, and one of them is the downstream oil industry. So far it seems to be inoculated from the intramurals between members and non-members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries or OPEC.
The outlook remains optimistic especially for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) companies since their products are considered basic necessities in most Filipino households.
Case in point is
South Pacific Inc.
(SPI), a 100% Filipino-owned LPG wholesaler that continued its upward trajectory in 2019. For the third year in a row, it also maintained its position as the Philippines’ third largest LPG firm behind Petron Corp. and Liquigaz Philippines Inc.
Based on the latest data from the Department of Energy (DoE), SPI was the country’s fastest growing LPG wholesaler last year. With its 17.0% market share as of September 2019, the company gained almost 3.6 percentage points compared to its 13.4% market share at year-end 2018. SPI’s stellar performance was in contrast to other industry players that either went sideways or downwards. Petron’s market share of 28.9% marginally went up by less than one percentage point. On the other hand, Liquigaz suffered a 1.3 percentage points drop in market share from 22.9% to 21.6% during the corresponding period
According to SPI President Inigo “Jun” Golingay, the LPG volume sold in 2019 rose by 40% year-on-year, while gross sales grew by 33% and net profit jumped by over 100%. Amid the challenging global and local markets, he attributed these robust results to SPI’s advantage in terms of product availability due to the fact that it has the biggest LPG storage terminal in the Philippines — which ensures security of supply and attracts independent refillers to buy its products.
Mr. Golingay expects market growth to be within the 8-9% range in 2020, similar to the past three years. He said SPI aims to sustain its growing market share in Luzon and at the same time focus on further expansion in the Visayas and Mindanao over the next five years.