China petchem investment may slow in 2008

19 December 2007 05:43  [Source: ICIS news]

BEIJING (ICIS news)--Investment in China’s petroleum and chemical sectors is expected to grow by over 30% for a fifth year in 2007, but credit controls could slow down building in 2008, industry sources said on Wednesday.

In the first ten months this year, investments worth CNY527.8bn ($73.9bn) were completed - a 36.1% increase compared with the same period a year ago, Meng Quansheng, a vice president at China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Association (CPCIA) said at a conference.

Investment in basic chemicals, coal and salt-based chemicals were growing fast especially in the resource-rich central and western areas such as Inner Mongolia, Hubei and Sichuan provinces, he added.

But the rapid growth in the past five years have added pressure to resources, energy and the environment and supply has exceed demand for some products, Meng said at the 2007 China Petroleum and Petrochemical Economics conference organised by the CPCIA.

These products include fertilizer, pesticides, caustic soda, soda ash, paints and dyes and they would need to be exported, he added.

He urged companies to look at bringing in new technologies and promote new products such as new chemicals and compounds such as engineering plastics, air-tight material and new energy products.

Macroeconomic policies such as credit control would increase financing costs for companies and could dampen the rapid growth in investment, Gao Chunyu, a senior engineer from Sinopec’s Economics and Development Research Institute, said.

Besides, entry barriers such as the need to secure resources, land and environment approvals were already in place to curb investment, he added.

($1 = CNY7.39)

By: Florence Tan
+65 6780 4359

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