New | Datang International’s chemical production losses widen to 1.37b yuan

Shares of Datang International Power Generation, the listed flagship of China Datang Group, one of the Big Five state-owned power generators, fell 0.47 per cent to HK$4.22 in early trade on Thursday after it posted a 0.5 per cent increase in first-half net profit to 2.03 billion yuan (HK$2.6 billion) on Wednesday night. Higher power generation profit was offset by lower profits from coal mining and chemicals production.

The first-half profit amounted to 44.8 per cent of the average full-year estimate of 4.53 billion yuan by analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.

Revenue grew fell 5.9 per cent year on year to 34.84 billion yuan, largely because power output dropped 2.1 per cent amid an economic slowdown and a decline in water flow where its hydroelectric plants were located, the firm said in a filing to Shanghai’s stock exchange.

Operating profit of Datang International’s power generation operation rose 46 per cent to 5.5 billion yuan as fuel cost of coal-fired power output dropped.

This was offset by a 77.6 per cent drop in operating profit of its coal-mining operation to 110.13 million yuan and a widening of operating loss of its chemical production business to 1.37 billion yuan, from a loss of 519 million yuan in the first half last year.

Output of the key product polypropylene from its Duolun coal-to-chemical conversion project in Inner Mongolia tumbled 46.3 per cent year on year to 68,200 tonnes from 127,000 tonnes.