KARACHI, July 5: Petrol consumption in 2004-2005 rose by 5.5 per cent to 1.3 million tons from 1.25 million tons in 2003-2004. This was despite frequent increase in petrol prices and rising trend of CNG.

The increase in petrol consumption has been fuelled by the continuous rise in demand of cars and motorcycles. And cars assemblers are still struggling to cope with the huge demand.

On the other hand, the consumption of high speed diesel (HSD) in 2004-2005 also jumped by 5.5 per cent to 7.7 million tons from 7.3 million tons in 2003-2004.

“The increase of 5.5 per cent in petrol consumption is quite a healthy growth especially when people are switching over to CNG and petrol prices are on the rise,” Secretary General Oil Companies Advisory Committee (OCAC), Abid Saeed Ibrahim said.

The increase in diesel consumption, he said, reflected the country’s GDP and agriculture growth.

In 2002-2003 to 2003-2004, car and motorcycle demand shot up because of car financing introduced by banks and leasing companies giving attractive packages. Cars were still in high demand, he said.

He said that the use of CNG in vehicles was on rise but it could hardly make any big impact on the demand of petrol as a lot of people still prefer petrol version of cars.

On the contrary, the government is promoting the use of CNG in a big way to reduce the pollution level.

According to Economic Survey 2004-2005, some 700 CNG stations are operating while 200 are under construction. By March 2005, about 700,000 vehicles had been converted to CNG as compared to 450,000 vehicles during the same period of last year.

Leading car assemblers are now getting more orders for the CNG kit-fitted cars.

“We are rolling out an average 7,000 vehicles a month in which over 50 per cent are CNG fitted vehicles,” general manager, marketing Pak Suzuki Motor Company Limited (PSMCL), Ashfaq Hussain said adding that the share of CNG vehicles was 25 per cent on monthly production of 4,000-5,000 vehicles a year back.

If the petrol prices continue to fly high, the CNG fitted vehicles would be 60-65 per cent from 50 per cent at present, he said.

The use of CNG has become popular in small cars since Pak Suzuki, which enjoys major market share in small car segment, has introduced CNG in all models.

However, big players like Honda and Toyota have yet to roll out CNG-run vehicles. However, Indus Motors, makers of Corolla, has introduced CNG in Daihatsu Cuore.

Around 800-850 Cuore vehicles were produced every month in which 50 per cent are CNG-fitted, general manager marketing, Indus Motors, Raza Ansari said.

He said that the demand for petrol vehicles would not decline sharply as petrol cars of higher engine capacity were fitted with new fuel efficient engines which gave 10 km on one litre petrol in rush time and 13 km on open roads. It was a fact that the demand for CNG vehicles was going up because of rising prices of petrol but new fuel efficient engines still attracted customers who wanted to drive luxurious cars. The Economic Survey says that Pakistan has become the leading country in Asia and the third largest user of CNG in the world after Argentina and Brazil. Investment of Rs17 billion has already been made in the CNG sector and Rs2 billion investment is expected in future. Moreover, the CNG industry has created 15,000 new jobs.

In 2004, a total of 147,000 units of cars, light commercial vehicles, trucks, buses and tractors were produced as compared to 107,000 units in 2003.

Industry people estimate production of these vehicles to reach over 200,000 units in 2005.

Production of motorcycles by three Japanese and three Chinese assemblers, who are members of Pakistan Automotive Manufacturers Assocaition (PAMA), has touched to over 400,000 units in 2004-2005 while there are over a dozen other Chinese bike makers whose production data is not available.