【当加油站无油可加时】 乌鲁木齐加油站为什么无油

　　 解放军炮兵学院 郑红 编译 　　 　　Consumers aren’t the only ones getting squeezed at the pump. Many gas station owners can’t afford to buy gas either.
　　不只是消费者因为石油紧缺而感到日子难过，许多加油站的老板们也买不起汽油了。
　　Don’t be surprised to see more filling stations with empty pumps. But don’t panic either. There isn’t a gasoline shortage like there was in the 1970s.
　　What’s happening is that filling stations have had their margins squeezed. Credit-card companies charge by the dollar, pushing up costs per gallon that filling stations pay to work with banks. And forget about sneaking in a few pennies’ worth of profit. Consumers are bargain-shopping like never before. The upshot: Some filling stations either can’t stay in business or are just barely hanging on.
　　Plenty of filling stations have already gone under. Last year, 3,184 of the nation’s 164,292 gasoline stations closed their doors and went out of business, the biggest drop in five years, according to National Petroleum News. In the mid-1990s, there were more than 200,000 stations in the US. Experts think there are more closures to come.
　　Even ExxonMobil, the world’s largest integrated oil company, is getting out of the retail business. On June 12, the Irving (Texas) company announced it would be selling all of its 2,225 US filling stations and convenience stores.
　　
　　Independents Worst Hit
　　
　　But the independents are really getting hit. Take Eranell Miller. He has owned a filling station and a repair shop in Baldwin, Pa., just outside Pittsburgh for 31 years. But lately, he has been losing money on every gallon of gas he sells. Some weeks, he can’t come up with enough cash to fill his tanks and has run out of fuel. “If it gets worse, I’ll close my pumps down and just rely on my garage,” Miller says. “I don’t want to go bankrupt.”
　　Here’s why small independent filling stations like Miller’s are hurting. He buys his gasoline or $4.04 a gallon from a local distributor and charges $4.09 a gallon. Since credit-card companies charge fees that are a percentage of the dollar transaction value, higher prices at the pump just mean Miller pays more for the service but without anything padding his margins.
　　Miller says the credit-card fees now add up to an average of about 5￠ a gallon at his store. That means, including shipping costs and overhead, he loses money selling gasoline. If not for his three-bay repair garage, he’d be out of business.
　　
　　Stations Run Low on Cash
　　
　　Other service stations with a higher volume of credit-card sales say their fees add up to an average of 10￠ or 12￠ a gallon. What’s worse, says Mike Convey, a gasoline salesman for Tampa-based J.H. Williams Oil, is that most consumers are now paying with credit cards because the price to fill the tank has gotten so high. About four years ago, approximately 25% of the business at his company’s 20 or so filling stations was done with credit cards. Now about 75% of their gasoline is sold on credit, pushing up his firm’s credit-card costs.
　　A few have found ways to pass on the costs. Paul Kelly, owner of Kelly’s Sea Bay Sunoco in Lavallette, N.J., has started passing his 12￠-a-gallon fees on to customers buying with credit. And why not, he says. Every penny adds up to $20,000 a year in profits. And if he doesn’t, he won’t make any money on the gasoline.
　　In other situations, filling stations run high on credit and can’t afford to buy another shipment. So they wait until they have sold every drop they have to raise cash flow and buy more gasoline, says Ben Brockwell, director of data, pricing, and information services for the Oil Price Information Service.
　　For small independent filling stations, liquidity has become a problem, Brockwell says. They may order $34,000 worth of gasoline and have to pay for the entire order in two days. But at the time, the station may have, say, $10,000 worth of gasoline in its tanks. That means they are $10,000 short of buying a new full load. So they buy less than a full order and risk running out. Forget about credit. Banks aren’t expanding credit terms for small mom-and-pop shops, Brockwell says. “Some dealers either can’t buy more or they’re buying quarter-and half-loads.”
　　
　　Competition Dying Off
　　
　　There will still be plenty of gasoline to be bought. In fact, during the three-year rise in gasoline and oil prices, there hasn’t really been a shortage of fuel anywhere in the supply chain, says Don Bowers, manager of logistics at Superior Petroleum, a Pittsburgh-based gasoline distributor that also owns about 30 of its own retail stations.
　　What’s likely to happen is that larger stores owned by big retailers such as Altoona (Pa.)-based Sheetz or Dallas-based 7-Eleven will get bigger as the small fries go by the wayside.
　　But then, says Convey, the consumer will take the hit. Less competition could mean a few more pennies per gallon at the pump.
　　Kelly, the Sunoco franchisee in New Jersey, says that competition is dying off on the 13-mile strip island where he has owned his filling and repair station for 26 years. In the past year, Kelly says, three of the area’s six filling stations have shut down. And another has been for sale for five years. He thinks the Exxon station that’s up for sale will be sold to make way for pricey beach condos.
　　His station, which sells almost 2 million gallons of gasoline a year, picked up 500,000 gallons’ worth of business last year when the other stations disappeared. If filling stations keep closing or selling out, “I could end up with a near monopoly here,” he says.
　　
　　当你看到越来越多的加油站的油泵空空时别觉得奇怪，也别惊慌，因为并没有发生像20世纪70年代那样的石油短缺的危机。
　　正在发生的不过是加油站的赚头越来越小而已。信用卡公司以美元来收费，而加油站每刷一笔信用卡就得跟银行支付卡费，这样就等于增加了每加仑油的成本，所以别再奢想还赚上几分钱的利润了。消费者们也开始了前所未有的讨价还价。由此而造成的结局：一些加油站要么已经出局，要么还在那里苟延残喘。
　　不少加油站已经破产。去年，全美国164 292家加油站有3 184家已经关门大吉，创下5年来最多关门家数（据《全国石油新闻》报道）。而20世纪90年代中期，美国拥有的加油站超过20万家。专家们认为未来还会有更多的加油站关门。
　　就连世界上最大的石油公司埃克森美孚也正在停止它的零售业务。6月12日，得克萨斯州的Irving公司宣布要将旗下所有的2 225家加油站和便利店全部卖掉。
　　
　　个体经营商最受伤
　　
　　但个体经营商们所受的打击才最为严重。就拿Eranell Miller来说吧，他在位于宾夕法尼亚州的匹兹堡附近的鲍德温拥有一家加油站和修理铺已经31年了，可最近他所卖出的每一加仑汽油都是亏本的。几个星期下来，他已经无力拿出足够的现金去购买汽油来充实他的加油站，加油站现在无油可卖。“如果情况继续恶化，我就关掉加油站，靠修理铺来维持生活，我可不想破产，”Miller说道。
　　来看一看为什么像Miller这样的独立经营商受到如此大的伤害。他从当地批发商以每加仑4.04美元的价格购得汽油，以4.09美元的价格再卖给消费者。因为信用卡公司按交易额的某个百分比收取卡费，因此，油价越高就意味着Miller支付的成本越高，而受损的利润却得不到任何的弥补。
　　Miller 说摊到每加仑汽油的信用卡费用已经增加到大约平均每加仑5美分，这就意味着，加上运费和管理费，他卖的汽油是亏本的。要不是靠那个三隔间的修理铺撑着，他已经破产了。
　　
　　加油站现金吃紧
　　
　　对另外一些营业额中信用卡支付比例较高的加油站说，他们的费用更是达到了平均每加仑10~12美分。总部在坦帕的J.H. Williams Oil公司一位名叫Mike Convey的销售人员说，更糟糕的是，因为油价高昂，大部分消费者选择用信用卡支付油费。4年前，他所在公司的20家加油站只有大约25％的营业额是通过信用卡实现的，而现在，这个数字达到了75％，进一步提高了公司的信用卡成本。
　　有一些加油站主找到了转嫁成本的法子。Paul Kelly，这位新泽西州拉瓦莱特岛上Sea Bay Sunoco加油站老板已经开始将每加仑12美分的费用加到了用信用卡加油的顾客头上。为什么不呢？他说，一分一分地累积起来，一年就能有2万美元的利润呢。如果不这么做的话，他在汽油上就没钱可赚了。
　　另一些情况是，加油站的现金量很少，不足以购买下一批货。所以，负责为“油价信息服务”收集数据、定价和信息的主任Ben Brockwell说，他们只能等到卖完现有的每一滴汽油以后才能筹到足够的现金去购买更多的汽油。
　　Brockwell说，对一些小的个体加油站来说，资金周转困难已经成了一个问题。他们也许能一次定购价值34 000美元的汽油，但必须在两天之内付清全部款额。但是同时，他们的加油站也许尚有，比如说，价值10 000美元的存油。这就意味着他们缺10 000美元购买新油。因此，他们只好冒着断货的危险不一次买足货。甭想贷款这样的好事，银行是不会给这些小型的夫妻店提供贷款的。“一些零售商要么就买不了更多的油，要么就只能买所需油的1/4或1/2。”
　　
　　竞争正在消亡
　　
　　Don Bowers是一家总部在匹兹堡、旗下拥有约30家加油站的汽油批发商Superior Petroleum的后勤部经理。他说，并非买不到汽油。实际上，在石油和汽油涨价的这三年间，任何地方的油供应都没有真正短缺过。
　　可能发生的是，大零售商们，诸如阿尔图纳的Sheetz、达拉斯的7-Eleven，他们旗下的较大商店会因为小店铺们的退场而变得更强大。
　　Convey说，到那时受伤的就是消费者了，因为竞争的减少就意味着每加仑的汽油要多收几美分。
　　Kelly，这位新泽西的Sunoco总经销商说，在他拥有加油站兼修理铺长达26年的这座13英里长的小岛上，竞争正走向死亡。在过去的一年里，该地区的6家加油站有3家已经关门，还有一家已待售5年。他认为那家待售的埃克森加油站会被卖掉，为建造昂贵的海滨分套出售公寓腾出地来。
　　他拥有的加油站年销量200万加仑，去年因为其他加油站相继关门而增加了50万加仑的销量。如果加油站继续关门或被卖掉的话，“我最后没准会垄断这儿的汽油零售了，”他说。
　　（责编：张楚武）