Sinopec H1 results reflect slowdowns
July 23rd, 2012 | Global TimesSinopec Corp said its crude throughput in the first half of 2012 rose 1.13 percent over a year earlier, easing from a 3 percent expansion in 2011, according to a company statement issued over the weekend.
Output of ethylene, a building block for petrochemicals such as plastics, rubber and chemical fibre, slipped 4.1 percent in the period, compared to a 9.2 percent growth for the whole of 2011, said the statement.
The figures offer fresh evidence that demand in the world’s second largest energy user was waning in tandem with a slowing economy.
The refiner, Asia’s largest, processed 4.43 million barrels of crude per day in the January to June period, or a meagre 26,000 bpd increase over the same period a year ago.
Sinopec, due to announce its second-quarter earnings in August, reported its first-quarter profit fell by a worse-than-expected 35 percent.