On July 23, the Guangxi Bureau of Statistics reported that the region's gross domestic product for the first half of the year reached 1.450636 trillion yuan, a 3.5% year-on-year increase at constant prices. Within this, the value-added output of the petroleum, coal, and other fuel processing industry soared by 42.5% year-on-year, making it one of the most powerful drivers of industrial growth.
The petrochemical industry is a key advantageous sector in Guangxi's development strategy, forming the Beibu Gulf petrochemical cluster in the Qinzhou and Beihai areas. The leading enterprises in this cluster are the PetroChina Qinzhou Petrochemical Base and the Sinopec Beihai Refining & Chemical Base. Driven by these flagship companies, numerous investment projects worth over ten billion yuan have been implemented.
Historical data shows that over the past two years, investment in Guangxi's petroleum, coal, and other fuel processing sector has maintained rapid "counter-trend" growth. From 2023 to 2025, the region's total fixed asset investment (excluding rural households) grew by -15.5%, -3.2%, and -8.2%, respectively. However, during the same period, investment in the petroleum, coal, and other fuel processing industry grew by 35.7%, 250%, and 33.9%, respectively.
A core representative of this trend is the PetroChina Guangxi Petrochemical Refining-Chemical Integration and Upgrading Project in Qinzhou. This project added 14 new chemical units centered around a 1.2 million tons/year ethylene plant on top of the existing 10 million tons/year refining capacity, with a total investment of approximately 30.5 billion yuan. It was completed and began operations in October 2025. The gradual release of production capacity from these investments is fueling the sector's rapid growth.
Since the start of this year, the value-added output of Guangxi's petroleum, coal, and other fuel processing industry has maintained a strong growth trajectory, increasing by 55.8%, 48.5%, 53.9%, 51.8%, and 42.5% for the January-February, January-March, January-April, January-May, and January-June periods, respectively.
The Guangxi Petrochemical and Chemical Industry Development Action Plan (2025-2027), introduced last year, clearly sets a target of achieving 280 billion yuan in petrochemical output by 2026 and striving for 350 billion yuan by 2027. The goal is to transform Guangxi into a green chemical industry base facing the ASEAN region. The plan proposes actively undertaking surplus oil refining capacity to build refining-chemical integration projects. It also outlines plans for coal chemical projects such as coal-to-methanol, coal-to-olefins, coal-to-aromatics, and coal-to-ammonia. Furthermore, it aims to develop new salt chemical projects like light hydrocarbon cracking and caustic soda/soda ash production. The plan focuses on addressing the shortage of ethylene, PX, and other "three olefins, three aromatics" building blocks, while strengthening the supply of basic chemical raw materials like methanol, ammonia, hydrogen, and liquid chlorine. It targets an additional 20 million tons of refining capacity and 15 million tons of raw coal conversion, further solidifying the region's basic chemical raw material supply capabilities.
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