Laundry sector 'left holding bag by diesel cost surge'

The recent rise in fuel prices caused by the ongoing Middle East conflict has hit Hong Kong's laundry sector hard, an industry representative said on Monday. Dragon Kong, a board member of the Hong Kong Laundry Services Association, said the price of industrial diesel has surged from HK$6 per litre at the end of February to HK$17.50 this month – a rise of more than 190 percent. “I have never seen such a rise in my 20 years of experience working in the laundry sector,” he said, adding that the industry found the high fuel price “unreasonable and unacceptable.” The industry, Kong told RTHK, has been relying on diesel to power steam boilers, which cannot be easily replaced by another energy source. He said many service providers had to stop accepting new laundry orders due to surging costs and that increasing prices for customers was often not an option. “Our factories mostly receive orders through bidding and the prices are already set. If we want to add additional surcharges, our clients will not accept this. They simply don't understand,” Kong said. “Perhaps many people in general don’t really understand why we use so much diesel.” Kong also said businesses in the sector had freeze new hires and shorten operating hours to save on costs. Edited by Cecil Wong