Fears of fuel shortages lead to panic buying in Australia

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Petrol pumps in Australia run dry, but is panic buying to blame.

It's world business express from the BBC World Service.

I'm Sarah Rogers.

Also on the program are weight loss drugs about to get much cheaper.

And we've a Hollywood actor weighing in on the Warner Brothers

Paramount merger.

Yes, but first to Australia where petrol and diesel pumps

are running dry at hundreds of service stations.

But there are reports it's because of panic buying,

rather than a fuel shortage caused by the US-Israel war in Iran.

The Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, has said supply is secure,

but people are queuing up to fill up at the pumps.

It is getting pretty tough out there.

Very tough.

Yeah, it's not going to make me make it easy for me.

Enough supposed to be at a training course in four minutes.

The price is going up daily.

It was only two days ago.

I just filled up under three bucks.

Notice today it's I think over through 15.

There are also concerns about distribution and questions

over whether wholesalers are prioritising larger operators

with longstanding contracts.

In New South Wales, Australia's most popular state,

one in seven retailers say they're out of at least one type of fuel.

Steve Amos runs an independent petrol station in Queensland

and told me what his supplies are like.

Look, they're okay.

We are obviously struggling with pricing.

The pricing is through the roof like nothing we've ever seen before.

How much?

Our diesel at the moment is $3.20 a litre.

Diesel was $1.70 a few weeks ago.

Australia has about a month's worth of fuel supply at any stage.

So whether that's today, yesterday or a week from now,

it sort of sits at a consistent 30 days.

I think the general public took that as limited supply meant

that there was a countdown and in 15 days we would have 15 days

and in 21 days we would have nine days worth of fuel.

So there was a lot of panic buying.

The people panic buying from you?

Yes, there was a lot of panic buying.

We went through a hell of a lot of fuel in a very short period of time

over a number of days.

How much?

We were doing a day and a half worth of fuel every day for probably five days.

And that was the point where the terminals just basically shut everything down

and started being very selective about how they did their distribution.

So the wholesale prices are coming up more expensive.

You're having to buy that in.

People are still paying these high prices though, aren't they?

Yeah, absolutely.

And that's it.

I mean, what choice do you have?

You know, from a commercial point of view,

if you're not putting the fuel in your trucks,

you're not delivering the products, you're not earning any money.

So there are lots of levies flying around at the moment

and all of the logistics companies have put out emails to every single one of their customers

that everybody is pushing out those costings onto the customer,

which is basically the end user is going to end up paying for it.

So the general public are paying massive prices at the Bowser

and they're going to start paying much higher prices everywhere else.

What would your message be to those who are joining Long Cues to fill up?

Just take what you need.

You know, there is no reason to panic.

Well, elsewhere, more countries are introducing measures to try and offset rising oil prices.

India's reduced taxes on diesel and petrol via NAMS,

temporarily waived in environmental tax on fuel.

And Japan has said it plans to lift restrictions on coal-fired power plants.

I have Randy Somal with me for manager at M&G Investment Management.

We've been hearing from governments, businesses and people about their lives.

What about investors, Randy?

Another rocky week for the markets.

It's been a tough week, unfortunately.

As this conflict drags on, the implications continue to grow

with the rate of hormones that shut and oil not getting out into the markets.

Now, we are looking at longer-term dangers of inflation and also rising interest rates.

And we've been talking about fuel prices there.

Some people might be thinking it's getting electric car.

It's time, but Chinese EV maker BYD posted a drop in profits.

What's behind that?

Yes, I mean, it is a bit of a surprise.

It's their first annual profit drop in four years

and their slowest growth in revenue in six years.

It's not because the Chinese have stopped buying electric vehicles.

It's because there are so many companies now in China competing to sell these vehicles.

The BYD may be the largest electric vehicle maker in the world now.

Gili, Huawei, Xiaomi are all crouching up in terms of competition.

Yeah, and it's been looking to expand abroad to fill that domestic gap.

Hasn't it run deep? Thank you very much for joining us.

Austria has said it will ban social media for children under the age of 14.

The decision comes after lengthy negotiations with the country's governing coalition.

And cheaper weight loss drugs could soon be making their way to the market.

The patent on some agglutide, which is the active ingredient in a Zempick and Wigovie,

has expired in several countries, including India,

which is a big producer of pharmaceuticals.

The BBC's Artuna Shukla has been to see the Japs being made.

I'm in a factory once a specialty here in the southern Indian city of Bengaluru,

which is contractor manufacturing center glutide,

the drug which powers ozempick and Wigovie and it has earned its maker no one orders.

Twenty six billion dollars last year.

The exclusivity on that drug has ended.

And factories like this are manufacturing generic versions.

The company CEO Neera Sharma tells me the process is tightly controlled.

The cartridge gets filled in a sterile environment in our filling lines.

And from there, the cartridges come here and these robotic machines

are then able to put all these various components together.

And then the final pen assembly concludes.

Entire supplies have been focused on the large markets like US and Europe.

So the market which are opening up now have been really deprived of the product.

With generalization, you would actually see access to the product.

Both from first just availability and then also obviously generic pricing.

Prices are already falling fast from around $120 a month to under 50,

making it far more affordable for millions of Indians living with diabetes and obesity.

Doctors say patient numbers could soon double.

Countries where patents are expiring this year are home to nearly 40% of the world's population.

India supplies drugs to over 200 countries.

And with patents on semi-glutite expiring in many other markets including China, Brazil, Canada,

factories like these could soon be supplying rate loss drugs to much of the world.

But wider access is bringing fresh risks and will need tighter regulations.

semi-glutite is a prescription drug and needs medical supervision.

But gyms and beauty clinics are already dispensing it for cosmetic weight loss.

India's regulator has had to step in warning companies against marketing directly to consumers.

As the finished boxes roll out of this factory, this signal a shift already underway.

wider access to help millions and India is positioning itself at the centre of that shift.

Artena Shukla in India and Hollywood actor term producer Evilongori has entered the chats

on the Warner Brothers Discovery Paramount merger, either who runs hyphenate media group

told the BBC major consolidation could lead to innovation dying out.

The consolidation is the scary part of it, especially when you see a consolidation

and you see a massive amount of job loss of creatives because now it's just been a

it comes into this siloed system of intake.

And so when I probably will just pitch one person for five different buyers,

what happens in that process is innovation dies, diversity dies.

It becomes very cookie cutter.

I think we all need to pay attention to what's going to happen.

Supposedly it's going to operate separately still, but you know who knows.

And Warner Brothers says there will be a vote on that merger at the end of next month.

And that's it from World Business Express with me, Sarah Rogers.

I'll be back next week.

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