A firm hailed as a role model for the state sector in its struggle to compete with foreign rivals could soon disappear under an industry restructuring.
Newly formed China Eastern United Petrochemical Group is expected to be dissolved after Beijing announced a massive overhaul of the oil and petrochemical industry at the National People's Congress (NPC) last month.
China Eastern - formed in November from the merger of five petrochemical enterprises in Nanjing - had been promoted as a role model for state enterprise reform by encouraging the establishment of mainland conglomerates to compete against foreign firms, including domestically based foreign-invested enterprises.
It was the mainland's first cross-ministry merger.
Four of the enterprises - Yizheng Chemical Fibre, Yangzi Petrochemical, Jinling Petrochemical and Nanjing Chemical - had been blamed by Beijing for overlapping investment in the Nanjing area.
Under the restructuring, two fully integrated petroleum and petrochemical groups are expected to be formed - one for the south and one for the north - by revamping assets among China Petrochemical Corp (Sinopec), China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) and the chemical ministry.