BEIJING, Aug. 25 /Xinhua-PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Sinoenergy Corporation (Nasdaq: SNEN) (“Sinoenergy” or the “Company”), a manufacturer of compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicle and gas station equipment and a designer, developer and operator of retail CNG filling stations in the People’s Republic of China, today announced the opening of three new retail CNG filling stations that started selling CNG on August 22, 2008.
All three CNG filling stations are located on Changqing Road, the city of Wuhan, Hubei Province. Each of the stations has four filling outlets, and is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Targeted sales for each CNG filling station, set by the Company and used in its business planning, are 10,000 cubic meters per day (equal to 353,147 cu.ft.). All three new retail CNG filling stations are fully licensed by local government agencies to operate and sell CNG for use in CNG powered vehicles.
With these three additional retail CNG filling stations, the Company has opened and is operating a total of fourteen retail CNG filling stations in Central and Eastern China, eleven of which are located in Wuhan. Wuhan is the capital of Hubei Province and the biggest city in Central China, with a population of over 9 million people. On August 4, Sinoenergy announced its plans to open and have operating a total of 28 retail CNG filling stations delivering more than 200,000 cubic meters of CNG per day in Wuhan by the end of calendar year 2008.
“The city of Wuhan recently decided to speed up its process for issuing approvals for building and operating retail CNG filling stations in order to meet rapidly growing demand for CNG. The opening of three new CNG filling stations on Changqing Road was a result of Wuhan’s new accelerated approval procedures,” said Mr. Bo Huang, CEO of Sinoenergy Corporation. “We are pleased to report that our eight existing retail CNG filling stations in Wuhan are operating at 80% of working capacity in August, delivering over 60,000 cubic meters of CNG per day.”
“Expanding the scope of our current 2008 plans for creating a retail CNG filling station network, Sinoenergy plans to obtain additional locations in Wuhan on which to build retail CNG filling stations. Our goal is to have a total of 60 retail CNG stations operating in Wuhan before the end of 2010, with total delivery capacity of 600,000 to 700,000 cubic meters of CNG per day. Once this goal is achieved, we estimate that our retail CNG filling stations in Wuhan alone would have the potential to generate annual revenue in the range of $120 to $130 million and annual operating income in the range of $30 million for Sinoenergy,” added Mr. Huang.
The above estimates are based on the assumption that the 60 planned stations in Wuhan would be able to operate at approximately 100% of designed capacity and that the price of CNG for vehicles remains at the current level of 3.35 RMB per cubic meter and the operating income generated by per cubic meter CNG sale remains at the current level of 1.00 RMB.
About Sinoenergy
Sinoenergy is a manufacturer of compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicle and gas station equipment as well as a developer and operator of retail CNG stations in China. In addition to its CNG related products, the Company manufactures a wide variety of pressure containers for use in different industries, including the design and manufacture of various types of pressure containers in the petroleum and chemical industries, the metallurgy and electricity generation industries and the food and brewery industries.
Safe Harbor Statement
This announcement contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements other than statements of historical fact in this announcement are forward-looking statements, including but not limited to, future changes in the wholesale and retail price for CNG for vehicles in China; changes in policy by the national, provincial and municipal government of the PRC regarding CNG prices, the CNG vehicle industry, the construction and operation of retail CNG filling stations and related issues; the Company’s ability to raise additional capital to finance the Company’s activities; the effectiveness, profitability, and the marketability of its products; the future trading of the common stock of the Company; the ability of the Company to operate as a public company; the period of time for which its current liquidity will enable the Company to fund its operations; the Company’s ability to protect its proprietary information; general economic and business conditions; the volatility of the Company’s operating results and financial condition; the Company’s ability to attract or retain qualified senior management personnel and research and development staff; and other risks detailed in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties and are based on current expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections about the companies and the industry. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent occurring events or circumstances, or to changes in its expectations, except as may be required by law. Although the Company believes that the expectations expressed in these forward looking statements are reasonable, they cannot assure you that their expectations will turn out to be correct, and investors are cautioned that actual results may differ materially from the anticipated results.
For more information, please contact:
Sinoenergy Corporation
Ms. Anlin Xiong, Vice President
Tel: +86-10-8493-2965 x860
Email: anlinxiong@sinoenergycorporation.com
Web: http://www.sinoenergycorporation.com
CCG Investor Relations Inc.
Mr. Crocker Coulson, President
Tel: +1-646-213-1915 (New York)
Email: crocker.coulson@ccgir.com
Web: http://www.ccgir.com
