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Strategies & Market Trends : China Warehouse- More Than Crockery -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RealMuLan who wrote (1560)	11/19/2003 8:52:54 AM
From: RealMuLan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6370

China To Face Oil Pdts Supply Squeeze Till Early 04-Indus SINGAPORE (Dow Jones)--Chinese cities in the east and south have been suffering from a persistent gasoline and diesel supply squeeze since September, due in part to the higher demand for oil products in tandem with rapid economic development, China-based industry officials said Wednesday. Despite record refining runs in 2003 by major refiners such as China's largest refiner, China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., or Sinopec Corp. (SNP), officials say there are no signs of the supply squeeze easing soon. In the first 10 months this year, China's total refinery runs rose by 10% on year to 198 million metric tons. [AD] I seek: malefemale \| Age from: to [AD-IMG] "The tightness could last till early December after the Chinese New Year," said a Sinopec official. Since mid-October, filling stations in Shanghai city and major cities in Jiangsu and Zhejiang province have been running short of inventories as suppliers gave priority to key industrial and agricultural consumers. In some cities, suppliers started rationing programs so that all filling stations could operate. PetroChina Co. (PTR), China's second largest refiner, and Sinopec have suspended gasoline supplies to some independent filling stations since last week. "Perhaps, we haven't seen the worst," the Sinopec official said, adding that demand is expected to peak in late January and February, when the Chinese will travel for family reunions during the Chinese New Year holidays. Officials said Sinopec and PetroChina are keeping "low oil products inventories" and some refineries have had to cancel their gasoline export commitments. At Sinopec's Fujian Refining & Chemical Co. unit in southeastern China's Fujian province, officials have stopped gasoline exports since October to ease the local supply squeeze. A PetroChina official said lower refinery runs by independent refineries and the government's efforts to curb oil products smuggling also contributed to the current domestic shortage of oil products. The government has asked PetroChina and Sinopec to cut crude supplies to the independent refineries to help raise Sinopec and PetroChina's competitiveness by increasing their operational scales. The booming domestic economy has seen a major increase in the number of privately-owned cars in China, thus raising the demand for gasoline, the PetroChina official said. sg.biz.yahoo.com