Will try to 'pull' biofuel prices down lower
Trying to create a price difference between mineral gasoline and biofuel is the information that a representative of the Ministry of Industry and Trade said at the seminar on biofuel held on September 13.
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At the conference, many businesses said that the price of ethanol in Vietnam is still too high compared to the world, so the competitiveness of domestic ethanol is lower than imported ethanol, even the cost of producing domestic ethanol is 800 VND/liter higher than the price of imported ethanol. Efforts to reduce costs by preferential policies to stimulate demand for biofuel are the opinions mentioned by some petroleum businesses.
However, answering questions from businesses about the US government's support policy for ethanol producers, Mr. Jim Miller - Chairman of the US Agricultural and Biofuel Policy Advisory Council (ABPC) said that the US government only supports crop insurance for the development of agricultural products in general, including corn, wheat... if there are unexpected natural disasters, but does not directly fund ethanol production enterprises to make biofuel. "We only have a tax policy to help research and develop biotechnology to develop high-grade ethanol lines that do not use grain to make ethanol, and do not subsidize ethanol producers to make biofuel," said Mr. Jim Miller.
Sharing the same view, Mr. Steve Walk, CEO of Protec Fuel Company (USA), representative of the American Grain Council, also said that there is no special preferential policy for ethanol producers, but the advantage for biofuel production enterprises in the US is the abundant corn source (raw material for ethanol) at good prices. According to information from the American Grain Council, currently in the US biofuel market, over 97% of gasoline types contain 10% ethanol (E10) and in the near future, gasoline retail stores will sell fuels with higher ethanol blending ratios such as E15, E85, etc.
“Experience in developing biofuel in the US shows that the important thing is the price, low price will attract consumers to use more biofuel. However, it will take time for the US to change consumers' perception to abandon mineral gasoline and choose biofuel,” Mr. Steve Walk shared.
According to the Domestic Market Department, in the first 6 months of the year, the total amount of gasoline consumed domestically nationwide reached about 4.43 million m3, of which E5 RON92 gasoline reached about 1.78 million m3, accounting for about 40.18%. Of which, E5 gasoline consumption of the Military Petroleum Corporation reached about 62.53%, Vietnam Oil Corporation (50.15%), Vietnam National Petroleum Group (47.7%)...
Mr. Nguyen Loc An - Deputy Director of the Domestic Market Department commented that the success rate of using E5 gasoline was beyond expectations, because the time to deploy mass use of E5 was less than 9 months. Speaking at the Conference, Mr. Tran Duy Dong, Director of the Domestic Market Department, emphasized that the Vietnamese Government is very interested in developing biofuels with the goal of partially replacing traditional fossil fuels, contributing to ensuring energy security and environmental protection.
