Chinese court declares another Sinochem refinery bankrupt
· CNA · JoinSINGAPORE : A Chinese court on Friday (Sep 20) declared bankrupt a third refinery owned by state oil and chemical group Sinochem, a court document showed.
The Changyi city court also ended reorganization procedures at the refinery, Shandong Changyi Petrochemical.
Earlier this week, court rulings were made against two other refineries owned by Sinochem: Shandong Huaxing Petrochemical Group and Zhenghe Group Co Ltd.
The court documents did not specify what would happen to the refinery's assets. Sinochem did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Located in eastern China's refining hub of Shandong, the three plants have a combined crude oil processing capacity of 380,000 barrels per day, or about 3 per cent of China's national refinery output.
Reuters reported in July that Sinochem had shut two of its three Shandong refineries - Zhenghe and Changyi - for indefinite maintenance amid high crude oil prices and weakness in the refined fuel market.
Shandong-based independent refineries operated at an average of 56.4 per cent of their capacity in August, 10 percentage points below levels a year ago as weak fuel demand depressed processing margins, local consultancy Sublime China Information said.
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