Archive for October 14th, 2008
October 14th, 2008
First the good news - we’ve had our first sighting of gasoline under $3 in Winnebago County. The South Beloit Price War has taken prices down to $2.99 a gallon. Rockford gas stations are still generally between $3.09 and $3.25 though.
Now the bad news - we might see a brief spike of prices in this area. Wholesale gasoline prices out of Chicago jumped almost 19 cents today to almost $2.44 a gallon.The Chicago region - which includes lucky us - was the only one to rise today, as falling oil prices are causing a general downward trend.
Here’s the explanation from Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst from the Oil Price Information Service:
I think it’s a combination of a few things. Some of the Great Lakes refineries were down for Autumn maintenance, and most of the Gulf Coast produced gasoline headed toward the supply-starved southeast. So, the Chicago market and to some extent the upper Midwest, was the Peter from which the market borrowed to pay Paul.
Suspect it will be short term - spot prices for Chicago gasoline can’t remain 60cts gal above futures or Gulf Coast prices for long, or else engineers may figure out how to construct a land barge.
In lieu of a land barge, expect either a brief uptick in prices locally or at least a stalling of the downtick. Don’t kill the messenger…
October 14th, 2008
Chicago Rockford International Airport’s efforts to grab more cargo service has been noticed by Air Cargo World, the largest magazine in the air cargo industry. And that in turn may get it noticed by some of the magazines 34,000 subscribers around the world.
It’s a story about airports looking to be congestion-free alternative cargo hubs.
“With cargo capacity near saturation point at many major airports, some carriers are seeking convenient alternate destinations. … In the age of shrinking profits amid a soft U.S. economy and a weakening dollar, selling RFD’s potential to international carriers just got easier.”
In the article, RFD Executive Director Bob O’Brien says O’Hare’s landing fees are twice that of Rockford’s - $3.31 per 1,000 pounds vs. $1.64. O’Hare’s average taxi time is also twice as much - 10 minutes vs. five here.
And, the article notes, there’s space available.
I wish I could say international airlines get all their information from our articles, but they obviously need to see it in sources like Air Cargo World before they’ll take notice. I imagine this will turn some heads.
October 14th, 2008
The average for the Rockford metro area is below $3.25 for the first time since March, and already the average is outdated. Quite a few stations in Rockford proper are just under $3.20 now so the average will be even less when updated tomorrow morning.
To stem the tide of comments that “prices aren’t falling fast enough” I’ll rely again on hard numbers.
Oil prices right now are still about 55 percent higher than they were when the runup began in early 2007. Meanwhile, gas prices - even in Rockford - are less than 50 percent above where they were back then.Gas prices are at a justifiable level given where oil is at. Hopefully, oil doesn’t go back up and we can enjoy deflated prices for a while.
Rockford is tied at 84thout of the nation’s 270 metro areas in gasoline prices, down a spot from yesterday. There are now 74 metro areas below $3 a gallon, up from 51 yesterday. There are still 3 metro areas above $4, but those are in Alaska and Hawaii.
Here are the prices from this morning (as always, courtesy of AAA’s fuelgaugereport.com):
Gasoline: Rockford dropped more than six cents to $3.24Â a gallon. We have the second-highest gas prices in the state - nine cents above East St. Louis while 29 cents behind Chicago. The Illinois average dropped five cents to $3.32. The national average dropped four cents to $3.16. Illinois has the 12th-highest gas prices in the nation.
Diesel: Rockford dropped more than a cent to $3.79 a gallon. We have the seventh-highest diesel prices in the state. The state average dropped three cents to $3.93. The national average dropped two cents to $3.82. Illinois has the 10th-highest diesel prices in the country.
