Week to 25 Sep 2026 · cents a litre
Importer margin
After import cost and tax, MBIE estimates 18.1c a litre was left on 91 this week to pay for distribution, retail and profit. Its 13-week trend is 29.0c.
The margin since 2015
What the margin is, and is not
MBIE calculates the importer margin each week as the pump price, less taxes and levies, less its estimate of what the fuel cost to land in New Zealand. The landed cost uses the Singapore price of refined product, freight, insurance and the exchange rate. What remains pays for the terminals, the coastal shipping, the trucks, the stations and the companies' profit. It is not a profit figure on its own.
The weekly number jumps because pump prices lag import costs: when the landed cost rises fast, the margin is squeezed for a few weeks, and it widens again when costs fall and pump prices are slower to follow. The 13-week trend smooths that out. This week the 91 margin is −10.9c against its trend; diesel is −2.2c.
MBIE notes that it changed its method on 23 September 2026 to include the extra costs importers faced during the 2026 Middle East conflict, and that margin estimates were less reliable while prices were volatile from March 2026.
Average margin by year
| Year | 91 margin | Diesel margin | 91 import cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 34.6 | 38.6 | 135.9 |
| 2025 | 40.3 | 46.4 | 94.5 |
| 2024 | 33.8 | 45.0 | 104.5 |
| 2023 | 35.7 | 45.1 | 109.8 |
| 2022 | 32.2 | 41.3 | 122.6 |
| 2021 | 25.6 | 37.9 | 74.9 |
| 2020 | 30.9 | 39.7 | 49.9 |
| 2019 | 26.6 | 35.6 | 74.8 |
| 2018 | 30.9 | 34.9 | 78.6 |
| 2017 | 28.8 | 35.6 | 65.4 |
| 2016 | 28.2 | 33.3 | 56.2 |
| 2015 | 27.1 | 32.8 | 69.4 |
| 2014 | 25.4 | 30.8 | 90.1 |
| 2013 | 23.1 | 25.6 | 96.5 |
| 2012 | 20.5 | 23.6 | 100.6 |
| 2011 | 16.8 | 20.0 | 100.9 |
| 2010 | 15.6 | 17.7 | 82.6 |
A second view from the regulator
The Commerce Commission runs its own monitoring. Since March 2026 it has published, every fortnight, the gap between the national average pump price and a daily estimate of refined product cost, and compares it with the same months of earlier years. Its figure covers more than the importer margin (storage, terminal and trucking costs sit inside it) and should not be read as profit either, as the Commission itself says.
Its latest report, of 1 October 2026, is on the Commission's site. MBIE's weekly figures and the Commission's daily ones use different cost models, so the two margins do not match line for line.
For the taxes stacked on top of the margin see fuel taxes and levies; for what the margin implies about next week, the measured price signal.
Straight answers
What is the fuel importer margin?
MBIE's weekly estimate of the pump price minus taxes, levies and the landed cost of fuel: the money left for distribution, retail and profit.
Is the importer margin high right now?
On 91 it is 18.1c this week against a 13-week trend of 29.0c; the yearly table shows how that compares since 2010.