BEIJING — China's State asset regulator will continue to push mergers and restructurings among centrally-administered State-owned enterprises (SOEs) in 2020 to improve their efficiency and competitiveness, Economic Information Daily reported.

Consolidations will focus on areas with overlapping investments and homogeneous competition, the report said, citing information from the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) of the State Council.

Equipment manufacturing, chemicals, marine engineering equipment and overseas gas and oil assets are among the sectors that will see accelerated restructurings, according to the report.

The regulator will also study the integration of oil refining businesses.

On Jan 5, China National Chemical Corp (ChemChina) and Sinochem Group announced the consolidation of their agricultural assets into a newly formed entity called Syngenta Group in the latest step to optimize resource allocations.

In recent years, the Chinese government has made SOEs restructurings a major policy priority.

China currently has 96 central SOEs. Earlier official data showed the central SOEs saw strong profit and revenue growth in the first 11 months of 2019 despite economic headwinds.

The net profits of central SOEs expanded 9 percent year-on-year and their combined operating revenue rose 5 percent during the January-November period, data from the SASAC showed.