Petroleum Importers Limited (PIL) has moved to scale up the importation of fuel in the country through rail with 11 wagons of petrol offloaded in Blantyre yesterday.

The 11 wagons carried 466,000 litres of petrol and the company says it is expecting another 255,000 litres of the commodity to arrive through rail any day this week.

PIL General Manager Martin Msimuko said PIL, a consortium of oil marketing companies namely Puma Energy, Total Energies, Petroda and Vivo Energy, is also loading 700,000 litres of diesel from Nacala port in Mozambique to be transported through rail.

"We are also in the process of loading close to 3 million litres of petrol to come by trucks from the ports of Beira and Dar es Salaam," said Msimuko.

He, however, noted that forex remains a significant hurdle in bringing adequate supplies, but said PIL has engaged banks to support the same in ensuring adequate fuel supply in the country.

Malawi has been facing fuel shortages since July due to foreign exchange shortages caused by supply and demand imbalances in the domestic foreign exchange market.