China's oil refining glut so far spared the overcapacity axe

Hong Kong

WHILE China's coal miners and steelmakers face production and workforce cuts, the country's push to shrink industrial overcapacity has so far spared oil refining.

China's expanding refining industry can already provide one-third more fuel than the country can currently consume, Fu Chengyu, former chairman of Asia's largest refiner China Petrochemical Corp (CPC), said this month in Beijing. About one-quarter of the country's refiners will be idle this year, according to consultant FGE and the research arm of China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC), the nation's biggest energy company.