Demand for petroleum products drops in Zambia

Demand for petroleum products has fallen this year in Zambia because of slow economic activities, the weekly Financial Mail reported. The low demand has affected crude oil imports and sales on the domestic market.
The amount of the money spent on crude oil imports has decreased to $ 23.3 mm in the first five months this year compared to $ 37.3 mm during the same period of 1998.
The quantity of the imported crude oil decreased to 182,488 tons in the first five months this year compared to 242,505 tons during the same period of 1998.
The newspaper quoted Zambia Association of Manufacturers as complaining that the delay in selling ZCCM has caused a crisis on the Copperbelt in the manufacturing sector because ZCCM owes billions of Kwacha to the companies supplying ZCCM and many of the suppliers are facing threat of collapsing.

From January to November of 1998 Zambia imported over 500,000 tons of crude oil compared with 380,000 tons during the same months of 1997.