Petrochemical Industry Turns on Warm in Q1   

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) of China reported on April 22nd that the petrochemical industry turned on warm in the first quarter. The combined crude oil output of China's top four oil companies - CNPC, Sinopec Group, CNOOC and Shaanxi Yanchang Petroleum Group in March increased 10.6% over that in February, natural gas output 5.5%, and oil products output 13.7%. By combining the reports of CNPC and Sinopec Group, the sale amount of oil products in March surged 30% over the preceding month.
   On April 24th the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) went public the latest growth rate of production value added breakdown by industrial sectors. The production value added of the petroleum and natural gas exploration sector annually increased 9.1% for the first quarter, and 14.9% for March alone. The production value added of the petroleum processing and coking sector decreased 5.4% in Q1, the largest drop among all 39 sectors, and 0.6% in March. The chemical raw materials and product manufacturing sector accumulated a growth of 3.7% for the first three months, 10% in March alone. The growth of the pharmaceuticals manufacture slowed to 16.2% in March from 24.7% in February, and it was 15.1% for Q1. The plastic product sector reported a growth of 10.9% and 7.5% respectively for March and Q1. The production value added of the chemical fiber manufacture and the rubber product sectors increased 0.5% and 5.1% respectively in March, fell 4.3% and 0.6% in the first quarter.
   On the support of domestic demand, the production value added of the textile annually increased 8.3% in March and 6.1% in the first quarter, and the clothes, shoes and hat manufacture sector also enjoyed an increase of 11.2% in March and 9.7% in Q1. But both the two upstream sectors did not bring a large draw on the chemical fiber manufacture sector. The MIIT issued the stimulus and adjustment program for the textile industry on April 24th. Its impact on the chemical fiber sector is waiting for judgment.