December 5, 2022

14:12

Marcela Leiros – from Amazon Agency

MANAUS – Entrepreneurs in Amazonas that depend on the price of cooking gas to market their products and acquire income are feeling in the pocket the impact of the adjustment announced last week by the Atem Group, buyer of the Isaac Sabbá Refinery (Reman), the only one located in the North region of the country. With the increase announced a day after the conclusion of the sale, who depends on the input to work will have to pass the difference to the final consumer to not leave in the loss.

This is the case of Jander Souza, who manages a regional coffee located in the East of Manaus. He explains that, before the adjustment, bought a bottle of gas, with discount, for R$ 106. Now, the value already reaches R$ 114.

“I am necessarily forced to make a readjustment in the foods that go out more. For example, the slices of cake that we used to sell for R$ 2, now we are selling for R$ 3. We who work with food, with all this increase, we are forced to increase our prices or else we have to close”, he says.

Read also: Oil sector experts are unanimous on the damage of the refinery sale in the AM: ‘Regional monopoly’

The self-employed cook Maria Gomes also explains that every price that is readjusted, is embedded in the value of the final product or there is no profit. She recalls that the price of food made by her has already been changed two months ago, and now will have to be again.

“Everything that goes up, I have to add to the final value of my goods,” she says. “And it hurts me, because everything becomes more expensive for my customers, who also complain about the increase. I was planning a partnership to supply Christmas dinner at the end of the year, but things are going up so much that I’ve given up”, she laments.

Readjustment

On November 30, the date of the conclusion of the sale of Reman, the company Ream, of the Atem Group, announced in a press release that the price of LPG (cooking gas) would increase by R$0.93 on the following day, December 1. The increase applies to dealers and customers in the states of Amazonas and Roraima, and the justification was the need to meet transport costs at the base of Petrobras, in Coari, almost 400 kilometres from Manaus.

“The price of the product in Manaus in LPA mode is sold at R$81/tonne (eighty-one reais per tonne) above the price of the product’s origin in Coari/AM, however, this value does not represent the total cost of transportation (freight and port costs) between Coari and Manaus, thus demonstrating a clear price gap“, says the statement.

See the full statement:

It was predicted

The increase in the price of inputs produced by Reman, if the privatization is completed, had already been predicted by the Only Petrol Workers Federation (FUP) and the Union of Petrol Workers of the Amazon (Sindipetro-AM). In public hearings and interviews, representatives of these entities warned for the adjustment and also for the risk of shortage.

The president of Sindipetro-AM, Marcus Ribeiro, He said it is coming true what had already been informed. “I want to reinforce here that the sale of the refinery does not symbolize the reduction in fuel prices, related mainly to this issue of competition. First that it will not have competition because it is the only refinery in the North region. As a result of this, we will have fuel price increase, as it is having now”, he said.

He also referred to the justification given by the Atem Group as contradictory. “The refinery, being of Petrobras, and Petrobras being an integrated company, the fuel prices here in our refinery is the same price charged in the South and Northeast because the company is integrated and this ends up dissolving all its cost of logistics. As it was privatised, the Atem Group will include in the price what it spends on logistics”, he concluded.

The refinery has the capacity to serve the consumer market of the states of Pará, Amapá, Rondônia, Acre, Amazonas and Roraima. Petrobras said during the process that the sale of the refinery will result in increased competition and lower fuel prices, but experts pointed out that there is still a risk of regional monopoly.