China to merge top state-owned chemical firms

China’s top two state-owned chemical firms, China National Chemical Corp ( ChemChina) and Sinochem Group are going to merge into one ultra-large entity directly supervised by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, according to news released by the commission.

The name of the merged group has not been decided but its future business is to cover life science, material science, basic chemicals, environment science, rubber tires, mechanized equipment, city operation and industrial finance, Sinochem Group said in a statement released on late Wednesday.

The future group will stress business collaboration and management improvements, and focus on construction, traffic and the new generation information industry to make breakthroughs in key materials and provide comprehensive solutions by way of gathering innovation resources and smooth industrial chains, Sinochem added.

The combination would minimize competition between the two companies and create the world’s largest chemicals conglomerate with around 1 trillion yuan (US$153 billion) in annual revenue.

The future group will have total assets valued at over 1.4 trillion yuan.

ChemChina is China’s largest chemical firm with total assets of 843.9 billion yuan while Sinochem’s total 564.3 billion yuan.