China Sees CNY14trn Pie in Petrochemical & Chemical Sector

China's gross industrial output value in the petrochemical and chemical field will reach about CNY 14 trillion, according to the petrochemical and chemical development planning that the Ministry of Industrial and Information Technologies (MIIT) lately issued for the 12th Five-year Planning period.

In the period, from 2011 to 2015, the petrochemical industry is predicted to boast a large number of great opportunities and become attractive to investors.

In 2015, the average scale of China's refineries should be above 6 million tons a year, and that of petroleum pipelines and ethylene equipment should be driven up from 540,000 tons to 700,000 tons annually, said the planning.

The concentration should be further reinforced in such fields as nitrogen fertilizer, pesticide, chlor-alkali, soda ash, and calcium carbide. The number of companies, each with annual sales of more than CNY 100 billion, should rise from six to ten in the whole industry.

In 2010, the petrochemical industry saw its output value total CNY 8.88 trillion, and the indicator is predicted to reach CNY 15 trillion by the end of 2015.

The 2010 output value multiplied by 1.6 times from that in 2005, according to Li Yongwu, president of China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation (CPCIF). The crude oil output amounted to 203 million tons and crude oil of 420 million tons was processed, with ethylene output standing at 14.19 million tons.

Li suggests that petrochemical companies should strengthen international cooperation in science and technology in order to develop better and reduce environmental pollution.

In the first five months of 2011, the output value of the petrochemical industry reached CNY 3.8 trillion, marking an increase of 34.1 percent from a year earlier, showed data from the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).

In particular, the output value of the oil refining sector and the chemical sector separately hit CNY 1.245 trillion and CNY 2.458 trillion, jumping by 31.8 and 35.3 percent year on year.

The total investment in the petrochemical industry amounted to CNY 336.6 billion in the period, with a year-on-year increase of 25.6 percent. The number of projects under construction was 8,545, stepping down by 2.2 percent on a yearly basis. And the number of newly-launched projects stood at 4,120, declining by 11 percent from a year earlier.

In the first seven months of last year, the average growth of the petrochemical industry was roughly 13.5 percent, 0.2 percentage point lower than a year earlier.

Experts disclosed that large Chinese petroleum and chemical companies achieved CNY 10.24 trillion industrial output value in the first eleven months of last year, leaping by 32.6 percent year on year.

The petroleum and chemical industry will continue to maintain stable economic growth rate and industrial output value is estimated at around CNY 13 trillion in 2012, up by 18 percent.