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This Week’s Theme Fuel levy relief ends 1 July – revise your transport budget Fuel levy relief steps down – then ends On 3 June 2026, petrol rose R1.43 per litre while diesel fell R3.25 per litre. The petrol move was driven by Treasury reducing the General Fuel Levy relief by R1.50 per litre, with the self-adjusting Slate Levy adding another 35 cents. The full General Fuel Levy relief expires entirely on 1 July 2026, meaning petrol could step up materially again unless global oil prices fall meaningfully in the next two weeks. What this means for SMMEs Transport-heavy SMMEs – logistics, civils, construction, cleaning and security with vehicle fleets, distribution, agriculture – face their second fuel cost increase in a month. Margins on contracts priced before 3 June are already squeezed; another step up on 1 July could push fuel-sensitive bids into loss. Diesel-driven operations get partial relief this month, but the levy normalisation removes that buffer too. Multi-month or framework contracts signed against pre-June fuel pricing are most exposed. Practical action this week Three concrete moves before 1 July. One: pull every contract priced with fuel as a material input cost and model the impact at the post-July fuel price – renegotiate or build in a fuel surcharge clause if your buyer’s contract allows. Two: stress-test your transport budget under the higher petrol price, particularly if you operate a mixed petrol-diesel fleet. Three: where bank financing is tied to fuel-heavy operations, consider whether transaction-based funding – purchase order funding against a verified order, or invoice discounting against delivered work – frees up working capital faster than waiting on buyer payment cycles. What to do next: Identify every contract priced with fuel as a material input cost, model the impact at post-1-July fuel prices, and renegotiate or build in a surcharge before the next billing cycle. Tight margins set before 3 June won’t survive the second hike. |
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Two moves worth making this week: |
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Refer & Earn
Know an SMME we should fund? Refer them and earn when their deal closes. |
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02 Funding Conditions What the market looks like this week |
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Sentiment Cautious SA Prime Rate Prime stands at 10.5% after the 28 May SARB hike – the next MPC decision is in July. ZAR / USD R16.14 ▼ -2.5% this week Brent Crude $83.54/bbl ▼ -11.4% this week Gold $4,341/oz ▲ +0.1% this week Yahoo Finance · 15 Jun 2026, 07:50 CAT Operating costs are the active pressure this week, not borrowing rates. Fuel levy normalisation on 1 July is the deadline to act on contract pricing, fuel surcharges, and working-capital strategy for transport-heavy SMMEs. |
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03 Tender Radar Open tenders relevant to your business |
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Need Funding This Week?
A purchase order in hand or invoices waiting on payment? |
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05 Tip of the Week |
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Pull every contract priced with fuel as a material input cost. Identify which have a fuel-surcharge clause and which don’t. The ones without are your priority to renegotiate before 1 July – after that, the margin pain is yours to absorb. Fuel surcharge clauses are standard in logistics master agreements but rare in fixed-price supply or services contracts. Identifying the gap takes minutes; closing it before the next price step saves a quarter of pain on every fuel-heavy delivery. |
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06 This Week’s Case Purchase Order Funding |
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Deal size: R6m Logistics SMME absorbs June fuel hike on a R6m municipal route contract. A Gauteng-based logistics SMME holding a R6 million 24-month municipal route contract priced fuel at the pre-June rate when the deal was signed. The 3 June R1.43/L petrol increase shrank gross margin on each route by R420 per day across a 14-vehicle fleet. Rather than absorb the hit, they used purchase order funding for the next quarter’s scheduled vehicle service and parts replacement – freeing working capital to fund the fuel cost difference until the contract escalation clause kicks in at the 12-month review. Operations continued on schedule; the cash gap closed. This is a fictional illustration of how Sourcefin’s products are typically used. Names and figures are not real. |
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Built for the SMME journey Sourcefin stands alongside South African entrepreneurs, helping them turn confirmed work into delivered projects. We believe in the power of committed businesses to drive economic growth. Our purpose is to provide the reliable funding bridge that keeps promises made, moving our economy forward one successful deal at a time. |
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