Producer

Sinopec (China Petrochemical Corp.)

0386.HKHQ CN · Beijingwebsite ↗

Chinese state petrochemical company (SSE/HKEx: 600028 / 0386, HQ Beijing). China's largest refiner and the world's second-largest refiner by capacity. Sinopec produces hexane at multiple refineries including Yanshan (Beijing), Maoming (Guangdong), and Zhenhai (Zhejiang) as part of naphtha fractionation. China is now largely self-sufficient in hexane supply through Sinopec and PetroChina, having reduced import dependence via domestic refinery expansion. Sinopec supplies hexane to China's domestic soybean crushing industry (China is the world's largest soybean crusher, processing ~95 million tonnes/year) — an enormous captive hexane market. Sinopec's hexane capacity is embedded in China's strategic plan for food oil self-sufficiency.

4

Inputs supplied

3

Goods downstream

3

Facilities

0

Stories

Where it shows up

Goods downstream

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What else they do

Business segments

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  • Refining

    50%
  • Petrochemicals

    30%
  • Marketing & Distribution

    15%
  • Exploration & Production

    5%

Intelligence

What's known

Sourced claims about this company's role in supply chains — chokepoints, concentration, incidents, dual-use connections.

  • Did you know2024

    Sinopec (China Petrochemical Corp.) is the world's largest polyethylene producer — yet it is better known globally as China's 2nd-largest oil company (after PetroChina/CNPC), one of the top-3 largest companies in the world by revenue (~$789B/yr). HDPE production is a downstream footnote in an empire built on crude refining and gasoline.

    China Petrochemical Corporation
  • Concentration2024

    China's drive for hexane self-sufficiency is directly linked to its food security strategy: China crushes ~95 million tonnes of soybeans per year (more than 60% of global crushing capacity), importing soybeans primarily from Brazil and Argentina, then crushing them domestically. The hexane required for this crushing — historically imported from Korean and US suppliers — is increasingly produced domestically by Sinopec and PetroChina to reduce foreign dependency. China has thus achieved a supply chain integration from soybean import → domestic crushing → domestic hexane supply that makes its edible oil production largely independent of Western chemical supply chains. This mirrors China's strategy in other critical input supply chains: import the primary commodity (soybeans) while owning the processing chemistry (hexane) domestically.

    USDA Foreign Agricultural Service