China’s latest central SOE rankings highlight the importance of execution as clean energy investment advances towards energy security, integrated infrastructure and advanced technologies.
On July 22, China’s State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) released the 2025 executive performance assessment results for its 96 central SOEs. The energy sector dominated the top 10, underscoring its strategic importance to China’s state-owned economy.
- State Grid: #1
- China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC): #2
- China Southern Power Grid: #4
- State Power Investment Corporation (SPIC): #6
- China Huaneng Group: #7
- China Three Gorges Corporation (CTG): #8
- China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC): #10
China Energy Investment Corporation (China Energy), China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec), and China National Oil and Gas Pipeline Network Corporation (PipeChina) ranked No. 11, 19, and 23, respectively.
Advanced manufacturing companies also featured prominently, including China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) at No. 18, China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC) at No. 21, and China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation (CRRC) at No. 28.
The significance of the rankings extends beyond a corporate league table. The assessment combines profitability and operational efficiency with technology innovation, energy security, risk management and progress in strategic emerging industries, including hydrogen.
For central SOEs, hydrogen is therefore increasingly positioned not simply as a new business opportunity, but as part of a broader mandate spanning industrial upgrading, decarbonization and energy security.
Sinopec moves from pilots towards scale
For China’s hydrogen industry, the growing role of central SOEs is crucial because these companies control or influence much of the infrastructure required to move hydrogen from demonstration projects towards commercial-scale deployment.
Sinopec, designated by SASAC as the industrial chain leader to anchor hydrogen development, has built a network around its “three-axis, four-zone, N-line” strategy. It has established 11 hydrogen-fuelling supply centres, connected eight hydrogen corridors and put more than 50 hydrogen stations into operation along those corridors. Its wider network comprises about 150 hydrogen stations, making it the world’s largest hydrogen-refuelling-station operator by station count, according to company-reported figures for 2025.
The more consequential development is upstream. Sinopec’s 20,000-tonne-per-year green-hydrogen demonstration project in Kuqa, Xinjiang, completed in August 2023, integrates renewable power generation with hydrogen production, storage, transportation and downstream use. Hydrogen is supplied locally to Tahe Refining, illustrating the commercial logic of collocating production with industrial demand to reduce logistics costs and improve asset utilisation.
The next step is network infrastructure. A pure-hydrogen pipeline project led by Sinopec, linking Ulanqab in Inner Mongolia with the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, is scheduled to begin full-scale construction this year and aims to commence hydrogen supply in 2029. If delivered as planned, the project would mark a shift from site-specific demonstrations towards regional hydrogen infrastructure.
Technology as a strategic variable
SPIC illustrates a parallel strategy, combining hydrogen equipment development with its broader energy portfolio. The group has developed fuel cell technology and PEM electrolysis equipment while pursuing domestic capabilities in catalysts, proton-exchange membranes and carbon paper.
Its strategy extends beyond hydrogen itself to converting renewable electricity into higher-value products, including green ammonia, green methanol and sustainable aviation fuel. These pathways could facilitate the storage, transport and international trade of renewable energy where direct hydrogen use is technically or economically challenging.
SPIC has also been developing international green fuel partnerships to address barriers including inconsistent standards, supply-demand mismatches and limited financial instruments. For cross-border hydrogen and derivative fuel markets, certification, lifecycle emissions accounting and technical standards can determine market access, financing conditions and the value of low-carbon products.
Advanced manufacturing expands the hydrogen value chain
Hydrogen is also broadening the role of China’s advanced manufacturing SOEs. CASC, CSSC, and CRRC are positioned to contribute through aerospace systems, marine applications, and rail transportation.
CASC is exploring hydrogen-based aviation power as part of the longer-term development of lower-carbon propulsion technologies. Within the group, the 101 Institute of the Sixth Academy has developed liquid-hydrogen systems for transportation applications, including the “Track 1000”, a 100 kg-class vehicle-mounted liquid-hydrogen system designed to support heavy trucks with ranges exceeding 1,000 km. The institute is also participating in a liquid-hydrogen demonstration project in Sichuan covering production, storage, transportation, refuelling and vehicle applications.
CSSC has developed a broader hydrogen value chain spanning electrolysers, hydrogen supply systems and marine applications. Its subsidiary PERIC Hydrogen, with an annual production capacity of 700 alkaline and 240 PEM electrolysis units, has supplied more than 2,000 water electrolysis systems in more than 30 countries and regions.
For shipbuilding, hydrogen-derived fuels such as ammonia and methanol may offer a more practical route to maritime decarbonisation than direct hydrogen for some vessel classes. CSSC is capturing value across vessel construction, propulsion systems and fuel-related equipment as shipping moves towards lower-carbon fuels.
CRRC provides another route into hard-to-abate transport. Its hydrogen activities include fuel cell systems and hydrogen-powered rail applications, particularly on routes where conventional electrification is difficult or uneconomic. CRRC Zhuzhou’s high-power hydrogen shunting locomotive, developed with China Energy, uses a hydrogen fuel cell and lithium-battery hybrid system, with a design speed of 100 km/h, maximum power of 2.4 MW, and a 10,000-tonne straight-line load capacity.
CRRC Qishuyan has taken the technology into international markets, developing a 1 MW hydrogen fuel cell hybrid locomotive for Chile with 35 MPa onboard hydrogen storage. The locomotive was designed for the demanding conditions around Antofagasta, including steep gradients, salt spray and desert environments, demonstrating the potential for hydrogen rail systems beyond China’s domestic market.
Together, these developments suggest that hydrogen is becoming a cross-sector industrial technology rather than a standalone energy commodity. Its value chain now spans renewable generation, electrolysis, fuel cells, storage, pipelines, shipping, rail, industrial processes and derivative fuels.
Policy accelerates the transition
During China’s 15th Five-Year Plan period, hydrogen is expected to move from demonstration and policy-supported pilots towards larger-scale commercial deployment.
Recent activity by state-owned capital points in the same direction. Publicly disclosed information indicates that about 10 cases in H1 2026 involved state-owned capital establishing new hydrogen subsidiaries or launching hydrogen-related businesses, with investment extending into chemicals, steel, transport and infrastructure.
This broader deployment could help address hydrogen’s global “chicken-and-egg” problem: producers need customers before building capacity, while customers need reliable, competitively priced supply before committing to conversion.
The central SOE rankings signal that hydrogen is becoming embedded in the investment strategies and operating mandates of major energy, manufacturing and infrastructure enterprises. For central SOEs, hydrogen is increasingly a strategic industrial platform, with the next phase testing whether this commitment can translate into commercially competitive low-carbon energy and materials.