Stable Financial Performance of Petroleum & Chemical Industries in First 3 Quarters
Year:2017 ISSUE:22
COLUMN:ECONOMY AND BUSINESS
Click:305    DateTime:Nov.30,2017
Stable Financial Performance of Petroleum & Chemical Industries in First 3 Quarters

China’s petroleum and chemical industries registered sound financial performance in the first three quarters of 2017. The market of oil, gas and major chemicals saw largely stable domestic production, faster demand growth, significant price rises, and steady and rapid export increase. Unit costs declined and the industrial profits were healthy on the whole. However, against the backdrop of weak investment and mounting pressure from the import market of petrochemicals, the oil and gas exploration industry saw little profit rebound.
Main business revenue of the petroleum and chemical industries rose 16.3% YoY to RMB10.74 trillion in the first nine months, accounting for 11.9% of the revenue earned by all sizable domestic enterprises. The growth was 1.4 percentage points lower compared with January-June level.
The revenue of the chemical industry increased to RMB7.30 trillion, up 14.5% YoY, 1.7 percentage points lower than the growth in H1 2017. The revenue of the refining industry arrived at RMB2.49 trillion, up 21.3% YoY, largely flat with the H1 growth. The revenue of the petroleum and natural gas exploration industry was RMB670.23 billion, up 20.5% YoY, 4.2 percentage points lower from H1.
Among chemical sectors, growth rates in the main business revenues of synthetic materials, basic chemical raw materials and specialty chemicals took up the first three places, reaching 24.4%, 16.3% and 14.8% YoY respectively. Those in the rubber products, coating (pigment) manufacturing sectors, fertilizer and agricultural chemicals sectors registered 9.2%, 7.9%, 6.8% and 10.1% respectively.
Domestic crude oil production dropped 4.6% YoY to 144 million tons in the first three quarters. The decline was 0.7 percentage points lower compared to that in H1. Domestic natural gas (including coalbed methane) output rose 9.1% YoY to 108.72 billion m3, 1.1 percentage points higher than the H1 growth. Liquefied natural gas (LNG) output increased 20.7% YoY to 6.171 million tons.
Domestic processing volume of crude oil increased 4.7% YoY to 418 million tons. The output of finished oil products (gasoline, kerosene and diesel) rose 2.7% YoY to 265 million tons, with diesel output increasing by 2.0% to 135 million tons and gasoline 2.4% to 98.637 million tons.
Domestic ethylene output grew 1.0% YoY to 13.593 million tons in the first three quarters, methanol output 8.1% YoY to 34.179 million tons, coatings 9.4% to 15.227 million tons, chemical reagents 4.3% to 15.032 million tons, sulfuric acid 4.3% to 68.341 million tons, caustic soda 4.4% to 25.812 million tons, calcium carbide 3.2% to 19.6 million tons, polysilicon 10.0% to 224 000 tons, synthetic resins 6.0% to 64.735 million tons, synthetic fiber monomer (polymer) 7.5% to 44.924 million tons and tire covers 5.8% to 725 million units.
Import and export trade of the petroleum and chemical industries continued to surge in the period. Their aggregate import and export value increased 21.6% YoY to US$424.81 billion in January-September, accounting for 14.3% of the national total, according to customs data. The increase is the largest one for the past five years. The industries’ export value amounted to US$139.93 billion, up 10.5% YoY, largely flat with the growth in H1 2017. The value took up 8.6% of the national total. Their import value totaled US$284.87 billion, up 28.0% YoY, slightly lower than the H1 rise. It took up 21.3% of the national total. The trade deficit in the first three quarters reached US$144.94 billion, increasing 51.1% YoY.
Export value of rubber products rebounded slightly, while that of finished oil products maintained a rapid rise. The former rose 4.3% YoY to US$34.66 billion in the first three quarters, accounting for 24.8% of the total export value of the petroleum and chemical industries. The growth was 0.5 percentage points higher than the H1 level. Their export volume rose 3.4% YoY to 7.252 million tons. Export value of finished oil products was US$14.64 billion, up 28.5%, significantly down from H1. Their export volume rose 6.1% to 28.416 million tons. Export value of fertilizer dropped 6.8% YoY to US$4.52 billion. Its export volume declined 7.0% to 18.781 million tons.
Imports of crude oil and natural gas surged. Import volume of crude oil amounted to 318 million tons in January-September, up 12.2% YoY, 1.7 percentage points lower from the January-June increase. Its import value grew 43.6% to US$118.36 billion, accounting for 41.5% in the total import value of the whole industries. Import volume of natural gas reached 67.37 billion m3, up 22.3% YoY, 6.5% percentage points higher than the January-June growth. The import value totaled US$15.87 billion, up 32.8%.