SINOCHEM Corp, China's biggest chemical trader, said yesterday that first-half profit jumped 75 percent as rising domestic demand boosted revenue.

Net income for the first six months accounted for 89 percent of the company's full-year target, Sinochem said on the Website of the state-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission. First-half sales gained 17 percent, or 56 percent of the goal for the full year, the Beijing-based company said, without giving details. Sinochem plans to double its profit to more than US$1 billion within three years, the company said on February 13.

China's energy companies are increasing output of fuels and chemicals to benefit from demand in the world's fastest-growing major economy, Bloomberg News reported. China's economy expanded 11.9 percent in the second quarter. Profit in 2006 rose 27 percent to four billion yuan (US$516 million) from a year earlier, Sinochem said in February.

Sales gained six percent to 180 billion yuan last year. Sinochem is the parent company of Hong Kong-listed Sinofert Holdings Ltd.