BEIJING, Dec 31, 2007 (SinoCast via COMTEX) -- There were 2,055 foreign-funded petrochemical companies in China by December 2007.

Foreign titans like Exxon Mobil, Shell, BP, Total, BASF, DuPont, Bayer, and Dow Chemical Company all have projects in China's industries including oil products marketing, exploitation of natural gas, petrochemical, fine chemical, special chemical, processing of synthetic material, petrochemical storage and logistics, and products with high added-value.

Most of them have long-term goals in China. For example, BASF's Asian business is planned to contribute to 20% of its total sales and profits in 2010, and 50% of the Asian sales will come from China.

Ethene is one of the focuses of those energy giants. A group of large joint ethene projects were put into production in succession in recent two years, helping China's ethene output to reach 10 million tons in 2007. The sale of oil products is also an emphasized field. Totally eight joint petroleum retailers have been set up by September 2007. More than 1,500 foreign-funded gas stations have come into service.

Moreover, foreign companies bring many new products and technologies to China.