http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601089&sid=aCD53QGjW9Ec&refer=china
Sinopec Leads Decliners Among Asian Energy Stocks (Update1)
By Wang Ying
March 7 (Bloomberg) -- China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., Asia's biggest refiner, fell in Hong Kong trading and was the worst-performing stock in the MSCI AC Asia Pacific Energy Index on concerns that record crude costs will reduce earnings.
Sinopec, as China Petroleum is known, slumped as much as 8.1 percent to HK$7.53, the biggest drop of the day among the index's 50 members. Oil rose to a record $105.97 a barrel in New York overnight.
``Sinopec will see a drop in first-half profit due to record crude costs and the government's reluctance to raise fuel prices,'' Grace Liu, an oil analyst with Guotai Junan Securities Hong Kong Ltd., said by telephone from the southern city of Shenzhen.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. cut Sinopec to ``neutral'' from ``buy'' in a research report today after raising its oil-price forecasts. China restricts Sinopec's ability to pass on soaring raw material expenses in a bid to shield the nation's 1.3 billion people from inflation.
The Beijing-based company's loss from turning crude oil bought at record prices into fuels sold under state controls was widest in December, January and February, Zhou Yuan, vice president at parent China Petrochemical Corp., said yesterday.
China Petrochemical will receive a government subsidy to help cover its refining losses, Zhou said in an interview in Beijing. The state will pay ``a certain amount'' to the refiner because the state-owned company has shouldered ``social responsibility'' to ensure fuel supplies.
Price Increase `Improbable'
The listed unit received a 9.42 billion yuan ($1.3 billion) subsidy in 2005 and 5 billion yuan in 2006 to compensate it for soaring raw material costs. Zhou was unable to say whether the latest subsidy will be reflected in Sinopec's financial accounts.
The prospect of China raising fuel prices this year ``is increasingly improbable,'' Goldman analysts including Kelvin Koh said in today's report.
Benchmark New York oil prices have jumped 71 percent in the past 12 months, increasing the bill Sinopec must pay for importing most of its raw material.
PetroChina Lanzhou Petrochemical Co., a unit of the nation's largest oil company, is losing 1 billion yuan a month processing crude because prices for the commodity are above $100 a barrel, a company official said.
Controls on fuel prices to curb inflation mean that the refinery needs crude to cost less than $60 a barrel for its oil processing operation to be profitable, Yu Baocai, Lanzhou Petrochemical's general manager, said today in Beijing. The plant, in Western China's Gansu province, lost 4 billion yuan refining oil last year. The refinery is owned by PetroChina Co.