All three key indicators posted growth, and profits reversed a four-quarter decline.

“ Fifteen Five ” With more than half of the inaugural year now behind us, the petrochemical industry is already showing signs of a bountiful harvest: in the first half of the year, economic performance… “ Three major indicators ” Overall improvement, with profits turning around. “ Four consecutive declines ” ; The full-year growth rate is expected to show “ Higher in the front, lower in the back ” The outlook suggests that revenue could remain near a record high of approximately RMB 16 trillion, with total profits exceeding RMB 900 billion. This was the key message conveyed at the 2026 Economic Situation Analysis Conference for the Petroleum and Chemical Industries, held in Chengdu, Sichuan, on August 6.

Fu Xiangsheng, Vice President of the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation (hereinafter referred to as CPCIF), stated that in the first half of the year, the industry recorded total operating revenue of RMB 8.05 trillion, up 7.8% year on year; total profits reached RMB 571.39 billion, an increase of 54.9% year on year; and total imports and exports amounted to US$478.66 billion, up 7.3% year on year. Overall, the sector’s economic performance exhibited six key characteristics: a marked improvement in operating results, steady growth in petrochemical output, stable consumption of major products, robust momentum in petrochemical exports, production and sales volumes of crude oil and refined petroleum products aligning with expectations, and pronounced divergence in corporate performance.

Meng Yan, a second-level inspector with the Operations Monitoring and Coordination Bureau of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, stated that driven by factors such as rising prices of petrochemical products, the petroleum processing industry turned profitable year-on-year in the first half of the year, while the chemical industry saw its profits increase by 67.8% compared with the same period last year. Together, these sectors boosted overall profits of industrial enterprises above designated size by 3.5 percentage points, playing a positive role in stabilizing the operation of the industrial economy.

“However, we must also recognize clearly that the foundations for the industry’s sustained improvement still need to be consolidated; imbalances between supply and demand, as well as structural mismatches, remain pronounced; and the severity of the external trade environment continues to mount,” emphasized Fu Xiangsheng. “At the same time, we must closely monitor emerging developments and trends—namely, the ongoing deepening of adjustment and restructuring, the accelerating pace of digital and intelligent transformation, the intensified push for green and low‑carbon initiatives, and the steady advancement of the energy transition—in order to seize key opportunities.”

Digital and intelligent transformation is a key direction for the high-quality development of the petrochemical industry. Wang Jiangping, a member of the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and former Vice Minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, has proposed comprehensively and deeply integrating artificial intelligence with the petrochemical sector. Drawing on the distinctive characteristics of process industries, he advocates seamless connectivity across the entire value chain—spanning research and development, production, and safety—and emphasizes a demand-driven approach, implementing a roadmap that prioritizes scenario‑driven applications, data‑centric foundations, model‑empowered capabilities, and robust security and controllability.

Meng Yan, for her part, recommends that the industry should focus on innovation and excellence, seize the opportunities presented by the explosive growth of AI‑related sectors, drive transformations in R&D paradigms, production models, and industrial structures, and foster the intelligent, green, and integrated development of the sector.

Regarding industry transformation and market strategy, Chen Meitao, Director of the Petrochemical and Light‑Textile Business Department at China International Engineering Consulting Corporation, put forward four recommendations: break through supply bottlenecks in key materials such as high‑end polyolefins, engineering plastics, and specialty polymers; develop high‑quality green chemical industries including green hydrogen, green ammonia, and green methanol; empower sectors like new‑energy vehicles and advanced chemical energy storage to enhance efficiency and upgrade their capabilities; and expand the application scope of advanced materials into emerging fields such as the low‑altitude economy and biomanufacturing.

This conference was co-hosted by China Petrochemical Federation and organized by the Information and Marketing Department of China Petrochemical Federation and Shandong Longzhong Information Technology Co., Ltd., with Li Bin, Vice President of China Petrochemical Federation, serving as the chair.

(Source: China Chemical News, August 7, 2026)