It may be better or worse, single or double layer, white or decorated, but there are usually two characteristics that are often repeated in toilet paper. Their rolls are voluminous. And cheap. Both peculiarities explain that right now there are a part of China where they fear that the price of packages will skyrocket between 10% and 20%. The reason is very simple: the iran war.
We explain ourselves.
What has happened? That Hong Kong is preparing for an accelerated escalation in the price of toilet paper. The news is reported by local media such as The Standard, South China Morning Post either Dot Dot News: in the region there are already those who believe that rolls will soon become more expensive 10%, even more.
Right now the stores are working with stored stock, but it is feared that as this stock runs out, businesses will update their rates upwards, generating more pressure on the pockets of Hong Kong families.
Why’s that? Because of the Iran war. The Middle East conflict the price has skyrocketed of oil until the brent barrel is located above 100 dollarstransferring the tension to the logistics and transportation industry. This increase has an impact on any merchandise that must be transported, but not all are equally sensitive to the fluctuations in crude oil, such as I remembered these days Shiu Ka-fai, a retail sector representative in Hong Kong.
Does oil affect that much? “While the value of toilet paper is low, its volume is very large, meaning it requires considerable transportation space,” Shiu reflectswho compares as an example what happens with a ship container full of iPhones and another with rolls of paper.
The rise in the price of oil (and transportation in general) affects both equally, but since the first shipment has a high value, the increase in freight will be less noticeable in its final cost. Things change when we talk about very cheap and voluminous merchandise, like a pallet full of paper.
Does only crude oil influence? The million dollar question. That the rise in Brent is transferred to transport and threatens to directly infect merchandise, fully affecting our shopping baskets, is no surprise. Another thing is the extent to which oil justifies price increases. In Hong Kong in fact already there are voices which encourage you to pay attention to which items become more expensive in the coming weeks, how much they become more expensive and, above all, why they become more expensive.
Pascal Siu of Our Hong Kong Foundation warned yesterday that one thing is goods dependent on oil, such as fuels or petrochemical products, and quite another is items such as toilet paper, manufactured with other raw materials. In the latter case, crude oil intervenes in only part of the production. To be precise in transportation and plastic packaging.
As an example, Siu points out that if inputs related to crude oil represent between 10 and 20% of the total costs of producing a commodity, no matter how much the barrel of Brent becomes more expensive, the final footprint on the price of the items should be low. After all, he emphasizes, other costs, such as labor or rent, have not yet experienced increases that affect the price.
Is this something that happens only in Hong Kong? At the moment the alarms seem to have gone off in Hong Kong, an economy with its own peculiarities and that stands out above all for its high dependency of imports. If we talk about toilet paper the “photo” It is different in Spain. That does not mean that the Chinese region is the only one who fears that the war will affect the prices of basic goods.
Right here, in Spain, the OCU published a report a few days ago in which he warned that the cost of food is skyrocketing “as a result of the war” in Iran. Specifically, the organization warns that March threatens to leave “one of the biggest increases” since 2024, when it began collecting monthly data. The emphasis is on the prices of fresh meat and vegetable products.
Hong Kong is also not the only region where toilet paper is in the news because of the Middle East. In Japan, supermarkets have found a curious effect: panic buying of rolls like those already seen during the pandemic or the 1973 oil crisis. The authorities they have made a move to ask citizens not to engage in compulsive shopping.
Images | Marques Thomas (Unsplash) and Michael Marais (Unsplash)
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