Many German gas retail prices to fall -website

MVV Energie AG

05/11/2015 12:15

FRANKFURT, Nov 5 (Reuters) - Some 1.6 million German 
households will see their gas retail prices fall by an average 
five percent between October and January, as local suppliers 
pass on savings in the wholesale market, a price comparison 
website said on Thursday. 
    Some 41 companies out of more than 700 companies in the 
fragmented local utility sector have announced reductions, said 
Check24, one of several web-based price comparison firms. 
    "We expect the number of those cutting prices to grow 
further, based on experiences of previous years when many more 
price moves only took effect in January," said managing director 
Oliver Bohr. 
    Prominent companies on the list include Stadtwerke 
Duesseldorf, majority owned by utility EnBW  EBKG.DE , and 
publicly owned Stadtwerke Bochum with a cut of 4.8 percent and 
Energie Suedbayern with a 1.6 percent reduction. 
    Crude oil prices, to which many European gas procurement 
contracts are still index-linked, have nearly halved in the last 
year on oversupply and with producers failing to cut output. 
    Imported gas prices on the German border in January through 
August 2015 are 11.2 percent below those a year earlier, 
official data shows.  GAS/DE  
    But apart from raw material costs, suppliers are seeing 
network charges, which account for a quarter of final bills, 
rise due to increased shipping fees. 
($1 = 0.9208 euros) 
 
 (Reporting by Vera Eckert, editing by David Evans) 
 ((vera.eckert@thomsonreuters.com; +49 69 7565 1228; Reuters 
Messaging: vera.eckert.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) 
 
Keywords: GAS GERMANY/RETAIL