The Czech Republic

Fuels

In 2008, engine fuel consumption in the Czech Republic slightly exceeded the previous year’s volume. Total consumption was positively impacted by a 2.2% increase in diesel consumption. However, in the second half of 2008, diesel consumption dynamics dropped to 101.4%, i.e. by 1.5 percentage points compared to the first half of the same year. The positive effect was levelled by a 3.7% drop in petrol consumption.

In 2008, we increased our share in the Czech petrol market by 1.3 percentage points, and in the diesel market – by 1.2 percentage points.

 

 

 

 

Fuel consumption in The Czech Republic in 2007–2008 (thousand tonnes)

	2007	2008	Dynamics
Petrol	2 026	1 951	-3,70%
Diesel fuel	4 069	4 157	2,20%
Total	6 095	6 109	0,20%

Total 2008 fuel import represented 30% of fuel consumption, of which petrol import represented 65%, and diesel import – only 14% of consumption.

Non-fuel products

In the first half of 2008, the petrochemicals market was relatively stable. Later, SPOT prices strengthened, mainly due to record high prices for crude oil and paraffin. The situation began to change in early August, with SPOT prices dropping due to a dramatic fall in crude oil prices resulting from the global financial and economic crisis. This resulted in record crack margins relating to prices determined in quarterly monomer contracts and downward price trend for crude oil and paraffin. However, low demand on the secondary market prevented us from profiting from the situation (e.g. activity on both ethylene and propylene spot markets in December was close to zero).

Sales structure of the key petrochemical products in 2008 (%)

	Ethylene	Propylene	Benzene	Oxo	Ammonia	Carbamide	Polyethylene	Polypropylene
Domestic sales	82	59	99,5	51	93	48	25	64
Export	18	41	0,5	49	7	52	75	36

Export markets for Unipetrol petrochemical products in 2008 (%)

The main recipients of the products were: Slovakia, Germany, Poland, Austria and Italy. In the Czech Republic, the volume of main non-fuel product import in 2008 amounted to nearly 721 thousand tonnes. The main import sources were: Germany, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Ukraine and Russia.