Founded in 1950, it is China's largest
trading company and its first multinational conglomerate. China National Import was the first state-owned foreign trading company of the PRC.
China Import & Export Co., Ltd. On 8 January 1951, the preparation team for China National Import & Export Co was set up. The staff of the company came from China National Import Corp and its subsidiaries in North China. On Feb. 13, entrusted by the Trade Ministry, China National Import & Export Co took on the responsibility to oversee the import & export business of some Hong Kong institutions. When it was put into operation on March 1, the main task of the company was to tear down the blockade and trade embargo imposed by the West, and conduct trade with capitalist countries. In November 2011, the company announced that it expected to raise ¥35 billion in its
IPO, making it the largest IPO of the year in China and the sixth largest in the country's history. Funds from the IPO would be put towards the development of an
oil refinery in
Quanzhou, a port city in Fujian province. In 2016,
Ning Gaoning became Sinochem Chairman and
Secretary of its Party Committee, taking over for Liu Deshu who had been in those roles from 1998 to 2015.
U.S. investment prohibition In August 2020, the
United States Department of Defense named Sinochem as one of several companies backed by the
People's Liberation Army. In November 2020,
Donald Trump issued an
executive order prohibiting any American company or individual from owning shares in companies that the United States Department of Defense has listed as having links to the People's Liberation Army, which included Sinochem. ==Subsidiaries==