More job cuts at Sinopec

In a stock market filing, China Petroleum & Chemical Corp (Sinopec) said it planned to cut headcount by 15,000 this year, to 370,000, to raise efficiency and cut costs by RMB2.5bn, adding to the 125,000 workers cut since 2000. Sinopec, the country's second largest oil and gas company, posted a two-thirds jump in net profit in 2004, to RMB36.01bn. PetroChina, the sector's no. 1 player and biggest employer with 417,000 staff, posted RMB100bn in net profit last year. Since 1999, it has laid off 58,300.