China’s petroleum and chemical industry developed stably in August. Production of petroleum, natural gas and main chemicals grew stably, and investment kept rising rapidly. Some problems still existed, like market sluggishness, high production costs, export decline and unstable external economic environment.

   In August, the nation’s crude oil output was up 1% YoY to 16.18 million tons, natural gas output was up 6.6% YoY to 13.8 billion cubic meters, and LNG output was up 13.7% YoY to 1.05 million tons. China processed 54 million tons (up 6.9% YoY) of crude oil in the same month, and produced 29.74 million tons (up 0.8% YoY) of oil products (gasoline, kerosene and diesel). More specifically, output of diesel was down 4.3% YoY to 13.51 million tons, while that of gasoline was up 2.1% YoY to 11.5 million tons, and that of kerosene was up 14.8% YoY to 4.72 million tons.

   In August, ethylene output was up 1.8% YoY to 1.65 million tons, and pure benzene output was up 3.8% YoY to 784 000 million tons. Methanol output was down 3.2% YoY to 3.97 million tons, while coatings output was up 7% YoY to 2.34 million tons, and chemical regent output was up 12.1% YoY to 1.98 million tons. As for others, sulfuric acid output was down 0.8% YoY to 7.35 million tons, caustic soda output was down 4% YoY to 2.74 million tons, but calcium carbide output was up 1.9% YoY to 2.15 million tons. Output of polycrystalline silicon was up 77.8% YoY to 33 000 tons, that of synthetic resin was up 5.7% YoY to 7.71 million tons, that of synthetic fiber monomer (polymer) was up 7% YoY to 6.2 million tons, and that of cover tyres was up 2.5% YoY to 70.69 million pcs.