Ticino Distributors: Facing a Perfect Storm?

“I’m full of diesel, once I went to Switzerland because it cost less, but now that I saw the difference in price I started doing it in Italy”. The thought of this motorist takes the photograph of the situation that the petrol stations are experiencing in Ticino and in the nearby peninsula, close to the border. The last decisive factor in this sense were the duties announced by the US President Donald Trump, who led to a surge in the Swiss Franco on the euro and a drop – especially beyond the border – of the price of petrol. “I have noticed several changes, we are working much more than in the past,” he explains to Ticinonews Angela Crudele, a gesture of the Q8 of Como Tavernola, specifying that “Italian customers now do no more petrol in the Rossocrociata territory, but remain in Italy”.

“Currently it is not convenient to make petrol in Ticino”, comments Boris Martinoni, CEO of Ecsa Energy and spokesperson of the Ticino Association of Service Stations. “In Switzerland two thirds of the price of fuel concern excise duties, so the margin exists only on the remaining third. But on the price of fuel it also affects the fact that the product from Rotterdam is transported, therefore via Reno and currently the transport is 5-6 times dear because it is missing water. At early May, for example, 80 francs were paid for a thousand liters, when they usually pay 20”.

In short, in Ticino there is not only an element that worries. “It was only one aspect, like the duties, excise duties, the gearbox or the increase in costs, it would hurt. But all sets create the perfect storm”. A perfect storm that risks having heavy consequences for the sector. “The trend is that: downward volumes and raised costs. Most likely, if this continues, some service stations will close, perhaps those with a shop with active staff”.