China’s petroleum and chemical industry developed stably in April. Operating revenue was up 2.8% YoY to RMB3.97 trillion in the first four months. By sectors classified by the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation, the chemical sector achieved RMB2.3 trillion (up 1% YoY) in operating revenue, and the refining sector saw a growth of 3.8% YoY to RMB1.26 trillion. The revenue was up 10.3% YoY to RMB336.09 billion in the petroleum and natural gas exploration and production sector.

Among segments under the chemical sector, the chemical pesticide segment saw the highest revenue growth of 9.1% YoY in the first four months, followed by the synthetic materials segment (6%) and the coatings (pigment) segment (1%). The revenue was basically the same as last year in the chemical mining segment. The revenue was down 1.1% YoY in the basic chemical raw materials manufacturing segment, 0.7 percentage points greater than the decrease of 0.4% YoY in the specialty chemicals segment. As for others, it was down 1.5% YoY in the rubber product segment, and down 0.1% YoY in the fertilizer segment.

In April, the nation’s crude oil output was up 0.6% YoY to 15.71 million tons, natural gas output was up 8% YoY to 14.08 billion cubic meters, and LNG output was up 11.8% YoY to 992 000 tons. China processed 52.1 million tons (up 5.1% YoY) of crude oil in the same month, and produced 28.97 million tons (down 2.5% YoY) of oil products (gasoline, kerosene and diesel). More specifically, output of diesel was down 9% YoY to 13.21 million tons, while that of gasoline was up 2% YoY to 11.58 million tons, and that of kerosene was up 8.3% YoY to 4.18 million tons.

Ethylene output was up 9.5% YoY to 1.69 million tons in April, while pure benzene output was down 3.6% YoY to 665 000 tons. Methanol output was down 1.9% YoY to 3.78 million tons, coatings output was flat with last year reaching 1.59 million tons, and chemical regent output was up 4.1% YoY to 1.53 million tons. As for others, sulfuric acid output was down 0.1% YoY to 6.7 million tons, caustic soda output was down 0.9% YoY to 2.97 million tons, and calcium carbide output was up 1% YoY to 2.16 million tons. Output of polycrystalline silicon was down 7.2% YoY to 25 800 tons. 

In April, domestic output of chemical fertilizers was down 2.8% YoY to 5.04 million tons. In detail, output of nitrogen fertilizers was down 1.5% YoY to 3.23 million tons, that of phosphate fertilizers was down 8.6% YoY to 1.16 million tons, while that of potash fertilizers was up 3.5% YoY to 650 000 tons. Pesticide technical output was down 12.4% YoY to 175 000 tons, with herbicide output up 3.4% YoY to 80 000 tons. Agricultural film output was down 5.8% YoY to 90 000 tons.