China's chemical industry reports steady growth

BEIJING - China's chemical industry registered steady expansion in the first 11 months of 2019, official data showed.

The industry's value-added output rose 4.5 percent year-on-year, 0.8 percentage points faster than the same period of 2018, according to the National Development and Reform Commission.

The output of major products expanded during the period, with crude oil processing capacity increasing 6.7 percent year-on-year to 593.18 million tons, while the output of chemical fiber climbed 13.5 percent to 54.93 million tons, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed.

In November alone, the output of the industry hit 8.3 percent year-on-year, up 6.6 percentage points over the same period from 2018, according to the commission.

The petroleum, coal and fuel processing sector reported profit growth of 45.5 percent, rebounding from the 31.2-percent drop in October, while that of the chemical raw materials and products sector dropped 0.2 percent year-on-year, narrowing the decline by 151.5 percentage points from a month earlier.