Sinopec plans record capital expenditure CHINA Petroleum & Chemical Corp., better known as Sinopec, is planning its highest capital investment in history for 2022 after recording its best profit in a decade. Sinopec expects to spend 198 billion yuan (US$31.10 billion) in 2022, up 18% from a year ago, beating the previous record of 181.7 billion yuan set in 2013, according to a company statement filed to the Shanghai Stocks Exchange on Sunday. Sinopec recorded its biggest profit in a decade in 2021 on the back of recovering energy demand and oil price increases in the post-COVID era, with net earnings reaching 71.21 billion yuan. Cloud infrastructure service spending rises THE country’s expenditure on cloud infrastructure services posted a strong growth momentum in 2021 as COVID-triggered consumption demand and corporate digitalization push have propped up market growth, an industry report said. The country’s spending on cloud infrastructure services hiked 45% year on year to US$27.4 billion last year, said technology market research firm Canalys. COVID-triggered demand, including telework, online learning and e-commerce, remained a key growth driver, the market research firm said. Solar power investment surges MAJOR power generation enterprises in China saw a surge of investment in solar power projects in the first two months of the year, official data showed. The investment skyrocketed 153.7% year on year to 9.4 billion yuan in the January-February period, said the National Energy Administration. Those companies’ total investment in power construction projects in the period went down 1.9% to 47.1 billion yuan. Wireless earphone shipments grow to record high CHINA’S wireless earphone market recorded a remarkable growth in shipments in 2021, an industry report showed. Some 120 million units of Bluetooth earphones were shipped in the country last year, up 21.1% year on year, according to the report from global market research firm International Data Corp. (IDC). The report estimates that over 130 million units of such earphones will be shipped in the country in 2022, with a year-on-year increase of 13.1%. The IDC attributed the market’s rapid expansion partly to the country’s booming livestreaming e-commerce market. | 