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On April 27, Rongsheng Petrochemical (SZ:002493) released its financial results for the first quarter of 2026. In the first quarter of 2026, the company’s total assets exceeded 407 billion yuan, with operating revenue reaching 60.6 billion yuan ； The net profit attributable to the parent company after deducting non-recurring items was 3.029 billion yuan, representing a year-on-year increase of 390%. Data shows that since the fourth quarter of 2025, the refining by-products and aromatic chemicals industry chain were the first to experience an upward trend; to date, sulfur prices have risen by over 120%, petroleum coke prices by over 60%, while the prices of PX and PTA have both increased by more than 50%. After the start of 2026, influenced by geopolitical factors, olefin products such as ethylene glycol, polyethylene, and polypropylene saw successive price increases, with cumulative gains throughout the year exceeding 35% on average. At the same time, the price gap between gasoline and diesel cracking continued to widen on a month-on-month basis, leading to an improvement in profits in the refining sector. As the leader in terms of the scale of integrated refining and chemical production in China, Rongsheng Petrochemical, thanks to its comprehensive, highly coordinated, and large-scale production capacity layout, is able to fully capitalize on the profit gains resulting from rising prices at various stages of the production process. Its overall ability to turn profits into actual cash flows is significantly better than the industry average. The benefits associated with all stages of the aromatic polyester industry chain have been fully realized. As a core business segment for Rongsheng Petrochemical, the company has taken full advantage of the price increases and improved profits resulting from developments in this industry chain. In the first quarter of 2026, the Asian PX market continued to rise driven by both rising costs and a tight supply-demand balance; the FOB South Korea PX spot price increased by over 22% compared to the same period in 2025, while the average CFR China PX price rose by 17.13% on a year-on-year basis ； The PX-naphtha cracking margin recovered to over $300 per ton, reaching a high of $350 per ton within the quarter, marking the highest level in nearly 2 years. In the midstream PTA segment, after experiencing severe profit pressures in 2025, the industry has achieved significant results through self-regulation to reduce burdens. On top of this, in 2026 China will experience its first \"capacity vacuum\" since 2019, with no new production capacity added throughout the year; as a result, the supply-demand balance will continue to improve, leading to a comprehensive turnaround in industry profits. The spot processing fee for PTA will be around the break-even level of 140–200 yuan per ton from July to December 2025; by the first quarter of 2026 it will recover to the range of 250–400 yuan per ton, enabling the industry to achieve positive profits once again. The downstream sectors also saw a recovery; driven by the resurgence in overseas demand, domestic exports of textiles and clothing increased by 17.6% year-on-year from January to February 2026. Exports of products such as polyester pellets and polyester filaments continued to rise, along with their prices, while processing fees remained at historically high levels. As the world’s largest producer of PX and PTA, Rongsheng Petrochemical has a designed production capacity of 10.4 million tons per year for PX and 21.5 million tons per year for PTA, accounting for 24% and 23% of China’s total production capacity respectively. The capacity across the entire chain operates at a high level of utilization, enabling maximum benefit from rising prices and improved profitability in all segments of the aromatic polyester industry chain. The significant price increases in certain chemical products have contributed to strong performance resilience. Apart from the core aromatic polyester segment, these chemicals, which saw substantial price increases during this period, have provided the company with strong performance resilience, serving as the key factor behind results that exceeded expectations in the first quarter. Among them, sulfur, as a key raw material in phosphorus fertilizer production, has seen its price soar sharply driven by both the concentrated demand resulting from global spring plowing activities and the tightening supply of imported sulfur. In the first quarter of 2026, the price of granular sulfur at China’s Yangtze River ports rose from 4,000 yuan per ton at the beginning of the year to 6,500 yuan per ton by mid-April; the increase in March alone was over 52%. Butadiene emerged as the top-performing chemical product in the first quarter. Driven by rising demand from the new energy vehicle and tire industries, as well as reduced supply resulting from the shutdown of many ethylene cracking units in Asia, the spot price of butadiene in East China remained above 18,000 yuan per ton as of March 31. The cumulative increase in its price during the first quarter exceeded 116.8%, reaching a new high not seen since 2017. In addition, chemical products such as styrene and ethylene glycol also saw significant price increases; in the first quarter, styrene’s price rose by over 40% while ethylene glycol’s price increased by more than 30%. Lingsheng Petrochemical takes advantage of the scale advantages of Zhejiang Petrochemical’s 40 million tons per year facility, which is the largest integrated refining and chemical production plant in the world. It has a leading production capacity in all the categories mentioned above: 1.21 million tons per year of sulfur production (ranking among the top three in the country), 700,000 tons per year of butadiene production (the highest in domestic refineries), and 2.4 million tons per year of styrene production. The significant increase in product prices results in strong profit margins, which serves as an important factor contributing to the company’s performance exceeding expectations. Analysts point out that, from the perspective of the chemical industry cycle, this current wave of price increases for global chemical products is not a short-term spike in prices, but rather a significant turning point marking the industry’s shift from the bottom of the cycle toward recovery and growth. Thanks to its globally leading integrated full-industry-chain layout, Rongsheng Petrochemical was able to achieve simultaneous profit generation across the entire value chain during this wave of price increases. This not only demonstrated the company’s core competitiveness in navigating industry cycles but also laid a solid foundation for steady growth in its performance throughout 2026.