Reading May Economic Performance from Breakdown Data    


NBS report

To calculate the GDP growth, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) of China always reported the monthly production (or industrial) value added, breakdown by 40 industrial sectors, in which the chemical industry are divided into seven sectors. The production value added for the chemical industry in the first five months increased 7.5% over the year-ago period, with a 12.6% growth in May alone.
   By sector, the production value added of the petroleum and natural gas exploration sector annually increased 9.8% in the period of January to May, and 9.1% for May alone (15.7% for April). The petroleum processing and coking sector decreased 3.9% in the first five months, but rose 0.6% in May, recovering from the shadow of drop. The chemical raw materials and product manufacture sector realized a 6.3% gain accumulatively, 11.1% in May alone. The pharmaceuticals manufacture sector grew 14.6% in five months, and 14.8% in May, both dominating the other six chemical sectors. The plastic product sector reported a growth of 8.7% and 10.2% respectively for the five consecutive months and May. The chemical fiber manufacture sector increased 13.5% in May and bringing an accumulative growth of 1.7% to the five consecutive months, compared with the 1.8% drop in the first four months. The rubber product sector increased 10.7% in May, greater than the 5.1% growth in April and also drove the accumulative growth to 3.6% in the first five months. In NBS's report, China's chemical industry achieved a total profit of RMB58.5 billion in the first five months this year, dropping 24% year over year.
    NBS also reported the new investment on fixed assets by sectors in the period of January to May. The newly added investment in the petroleum and natural gas exploration sector increased by 10.1% year over year, with the chemical raw materials and product manufacture sector rising 30.1%, the pharmaceuticals manufacture sector 44.2%, the rubber product sector 33.8% and the plastic product sector 31.3%, while the petroleum processing and coking sector and the chemical fiber manufacture sector suffered a drop of 1% and 13.7% respectively.

Data of CPCIA

As an administrative organization collecting production information, China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Association (CPCIA) monthly reported the latest production value (output multiplied by current price, for designated enterprises) data and breaks down the petroleum and chemical industry into the petroleum and natural gas exploration and production sector, the specialized petroleum and chemical industry equipment manufacturing sector, the chemical sector and the refining sector. The chemical sector covers eight segments.  
   China's whole petroleum and chemical industry achieved a combined production value of RMB538.34 billion in May, down 7.2% from a year earlier but 7.04% higher over April. The cumulated value for the first five months was RMB2 308.56 billion with a year on year drop of 11.2%, lower than the 12.4% fall in the first four months.        
    The petroleum and natural gas exploration and production sector realized a production value of RMB54.31 billion in May, down 41.1% from a year earlier, compared with the 38.3% fall in April, mainly affected by the descended oil price. The cumulated production value in the first five months was RMB245.23 billion, down 41.8%.
    The refining sector posted a production value of RMB140.86 billion in May, down 10% year-on-year, narrowed from the 14.1% drop in the preceding month. Total value for the five consecutive months starting January 1st was RMB608.46 billion, decreasing 16.6%.    
    The specialized chemical equipment manufacturing sector had a production value of RMB16.2 billion in May, up 30%. The growth for the first five months was 26.7%.
    The chemical sector reported a production value of RMB326.96 billion, a 2.6% growth year-on-year. The production value for the period of January to May was RMB1 386.65 billion, a down of 0.7%. Among the eight segments of the chemical sector, in May alone, the production value of chemical pesticide manufacture segment, the basic chemical raw materials manufacture segment, the fertilizer manufacture segment and the coatings and pigment manufacture segment was RMB12.43 billion, RMB74.61 billion, RMB37.59 billion and RMB26.21 billion, fell 7.3%, 5.8%, 4.3% and 0.5% respectively, while that of the chemical mining segment, the specialty chemicals manufacture segment, the rubber product segment and the synthetic materials segment was RMB2.02 billion, RMB82.62 billion, RMB40.38 billion and RMB51.11 billion, increasing 12.9%, 12.6%, 12.5% and 3.2% respectively.