BANGKOK: The Thailand-Laos Business Council says Laos’ decision to import benzene fuel from China will not affect cross-border trade between Thailand and the neighbouring country.
Council president Jaturong Bunnag said on Tuesday (July 16) that Thailand-Laos trade expanded 17% in the first five months of 2024 from a year earlier, with no sign of impact from benzene that Laos started importing from China last year.
The first shipment of Chinese benzene arrived in Laos in June 2023 under an MoU that Vientiane Petroleum State Enterprise signed with Sinopec Hong Kong and Sinolao.
Laos imports about 140 million litres of fuel each month, 80% of which is diesel, according to its Department of Internal Trade.
Meanwhile, Thai fuel exports to Laos rose 8.73% year on year to 42.79 billion baht in 2023, according to the Thai Commerce Ministry. The first five months of this year saw 21.2 billion baht of fuel exported to Laos, a rise of 13.15%.
Thailand’s national oil and gas conglomerate PTT also operates in the neighbouring country via the subsidiary PTT (Lao).
As of 2023, PTT operated 53 service stations in Laos, 81 branches of Café Amazon, and seven fuel warehouses with combined capacity of 7.26 million litres.
Jaturong added that Laos’ ongoing campaign urging people to use kip and reject foreign currencies including the Thai baht was a “psychological effort” aimed at supporting the kip’s value, and not a campaign against imported products. - The Nation/ANN
