Hong Kong-and New York-listed Chinese oil group China Petroleum and Chemical Corp (Sinopec) announced a 32.35 per cent on-year increase in net profits for the calender year of 2003 at Yuan 21.59billion ($2.6billion).

Last year, Sinopec Corp raked in Yuan 424.3bn of turnover, a 28.9 per cent gain over 2002. During the comparison periods, its operating profits soared 29.95 per cent to Yuan 37.27bn. Despite the unfavorable market condition in 2003 such as the negative impact brought about by the SARS epidemic and fluctuations in international oil prices which affected its production and business operations, Sinopec adjusted its operating strategy accordingly with flexibility to face the complex market situation, president Chen Tonghai said in a statement.
He also attributed the profits increase to Sinopec’s ability in finetuning its asset structure, increasing total production and sales volume, further reducing costs and headcount, and improved its economic and technical indicators.
China’s gross domestic product recorded an annual growth of 9.1 per cent despite the SARS epidemic, which resulted in strong domestic demand for oil and petrochemical products. Sinopec estimated that the country’s consumption of oil products like gasoline, gasoil, kerosene and jet fuel reached 133.97m tonnes last year, up 7.22 per cent from 2002.
Consumption of petrochemical products in China, in terms of ethylene, rose 9.65 per cent to 15.055m tonnes in 2003. To satisfy this surge in demand, Sinopec last year lifted its crude throughput by 10.71 per cent to 116.26m tonnes (2.24m bpd), pushing its refinery utilisation rate up.