Japanese downstream reform continues

摘要

Japan's oil industry is continuing to carry out reforms to strengthen profitability in a shrinking market, enjoying trade and investment protection even as the country signs up to a major global free trade agreement (FTA), reports Petroleum Argus. Japanese companies mostly boosted their refining profitability, excluding changes in inventory values, in the first half of the 2015-2016 fiscal year to 31 March, as their margins strengthened. The country's largest refiner by capacity, JX, made a downstream profit of ￥44bn ($360mn) in April-September, compared with a ￥5bn loss a year earlier.