Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Longwei Petroleum (LPH) Provides Corporate Update

Longwei Petroleum Provides Corporate Update
1/4/2012 9:15:00 AM
TAIYUAN CITY, China , Jan. 4, 2012 /PRNewswire-Asia-FirstCall/ -- Longwei Petroleum Investment Holding Ltd. (NYSE Amex: LPH) ("Longwei" or the "Company"), an energy company engaged in the storage and distribution of finished petroleum products in the People's Republic of China ("PRC"), today provided a year-end 2011 corporate update.

"We are pleased with our strong operating results year-to-date," stated Mr. Cai Yongjun, Chairman and CEO of Longwei. "Our revenues for the first five months of our fiscal year ending June 30, 2012 are up 6.1% year-over-year to $204.8 million . We are also on track to close on our third facility as soon as possible. We are working with the seller and local officials to finalize the asset transfer."

To date Longwei has paid a RMB 550 million (approximately $86.3 million USD ) deposit toward the total purchase price of RMB 700 million (approximately $109.9 million USD ) for the purchase of the assets of Huajie Petroleum, a fuel storage depot in northern Shanxi Province with a 100,000-metric-ton storage capacity. "With the closing of our third facility, Longwei becomes the dominant private storage facility operator in the central region of the PRC," stated Mr. Cai. "We expect continued strong demand and have become more selective in our customer base to maintain our profit margins."

" China 's economy is still expected to generate significantly more growth in petroleum consumption [in 2012] than any other major market in the world," according to IHS CERA (Cambridge Energy Research Associates), a leading global energy research and advisory firm. "In particular, we expect demand for diesel and gasoline - the two key oil products in China - to remain relatively strong and underpin the country's overall oil demand growth," IHS CERA forecasts. "Power shortages are also expected to worsen and could lead to significant incremental diesel demand."

"We believe the Company is well positioned to capitalize on the continued rising demand for petroleum products in the PRC, and we believe the addition of the new facility assets will further accelerate our revenue and earnings growth in fiscal 2012," stated Michael Toups, CFO of Longwei.�"We are also working to improve our level of transparency with our shareholders to keep them informed on our corporate developments during the year."

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