China will maintain its macro-control of the petroleum and chemical industries next year, said Li Yongwu, director of the State Administration of Petroleum and Chemical Industries (SAPCI), at today's SAPCI working conference.

Li said the SAPCI will place great emphasis on controlling crude processing and the production of benzosulfimide and soda ash next year.

Under the plan, crude to be processed will be no more than 183 million tons, while the output of benzosulfimide will be limited within 16,000 tons with domestic sales not to exceed 3,000 tons. The national output ceilings on soda ash and caustic soda are planned at seven million tons and 5.2 million tons, respectively.

The petrochemical industry will move to optimize product mix and step up industrial upgrading next year, Li pointed out. Efforts will be continued to close down small oil refineries, each of which with an annual capacity of less than one million tons. By the end of the first quarter of next year, the total number of shut-down small refineries is expected to grow to 100 from the current 56.

In 2000, the SAPCI will also hammer out relevant policies concerning small plants producing caustic soda, tires, dyestuffs, pesticide, and calcium carbide, Li added.

He noted that the SAPCI is poised to further promote the reform of state-owned petrochemical enterprises in 2000, and make every effort to fulfill the target of turning the loss incurring enterprises into profit making ones within three years.

The administration is attempting to secure six of the eight phosphate fertilizer plants which have implemented the debt-to- equity program this year, to turn losses into profits next year so that they can produce one million tons more phosphamidon and two million tons more three-nutrient compound fertilizer.

Li stressed that the SAPCI should wind up drafting the tenth five-year (2001-2005) plan next year and make preparations for China's accession to the World Trade Organization. In the meantime, the administration will map out long-term development plans from now to 2015 for the petrochemical industry, he added. (Xinhua)