New rise in butane | OCU

Since the new butane cylinder pricing system was adopted in 2015, its amount has undergone very notable variations in a short time... but there was a trend, an annual price cycle, in which prices tended to go up in winter and go down during summer, as we see in the graph.

This 2021 has broken all the schemes: the result is that the price of the bottle has not let up, and has not stopped rising. Starting tomorrow, after the seventh consecutive increase, the bottle will cost 16.92 euros, accumulating no less than a 40% increase since September 2020.

The butane cylinder will cost 16.92 euros

Starting tomorrow, Tuesday, November 16, the price of the butane cylinder will rise to 16.92 euros, which represents the highest price from the historical maximum that was reached between the spring of 2013 and the beginning of 2015, when it was set at 17.5 euros.

Since the new butane pricing system was established, with bi-monthly reviews, prices have fallen... however, the situation in 2021 is being different: butane adds to the rise in other prices and chain uploads for months. In fact, in the new review it increases 80 cents per bottle, which represents an increase of 4.96% compared to the previous price, speeding up the 5% limit that is established for the variations allowed in the reviews that are carried out every two months. (Actually, the increase approved by the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge is exactly 5%, and only rounding to the cent in its application to the weight of the bottle has placed it a few hundredths below).

The result is that, so far this year, the cylinder has gone from costing 12.68 euros to 16.92 euros, an increase of more than 4 euros, which represents a rise of more than 33% in just one year. And since September 2020, when the price was 12.09 euros, the bottle has risen 40% (39.95% to be exact), almost 5 euros, the result of chained increases that seem unstoppable.

Why is it going up?

The main factor must be attributed, once again, to the price of the raw material, which has risen by 20.6% in this period. This was something to be expected, taking into account the evolution of the price of electricity and fuel in recent months. With this increase, the price increase should be more than 13%, but since the variations cannot exceed 5%, a tariff deficit accumulates that will have to be covered in subsequent revisions and will delay future decreases in the price of butane.

In addition to the poor performance of raw material prices, the depreciation of the euro against the dollar (-0.94%) has also contributed, but to a much lesser extent.

The only positive news has been the slight decrease in freight rates, which has prevented the rate deficit from being even greater.

In January 2022 the record will be broken

And everything seems to indicate that the next revision, in January 2022, will go even higher. Traditionally, in these months there have almost always been increases in the price of butane. In addition, we have been accumulating a growing tariff deficit, with which it is to be expected that there will be a new increase, the eighth, in the price of the bottle. And it is very likely that its new price will exceed 17.5 euros, which is the highest price that has been recorded in history for the butane cylinder. And it will do so precisely in the coldest months of the year.

The upload is bad news for users

In any case, this November release brought bad news for several reasons:

In any case, it must be remembered that this maximum price only applies to the traditional butane cylinder, the one with a 12.5-kilogram charge and that when empty weighs more than 9 kilos. Bottles that weigh less than 9 kilos or do not have a load between 8 and 20 kilos have a liberalized price and are not affected by these revisions.