Hong Kong-listed Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical, a unit of Sinopec, saw its first-half net profit plummet 99.7 percent to 5.69 million yuan (711000 US dollars) - and warned its net profit for the first nine months would also drop substantially, The Standard reported. "Due to unfavorable factors such as rising international crude oil prices, surging raw material prices and a slowdown in the price increase of petrochemical products, our performance dropped substantially during the first half," said the paper, quoted chairman Rong Guangdao as saying. "We see the growth in demand slowing while the prices of certain products may fall as the government's tightening measures are expected to be stepped up in the second half," Rong said. "We expect the company to show further improvement in margin in the second half as the government will gradually raise domestic prices of petrochemical products to theoretical levels under the new pricing mechanism," Bank of China International analyst Lawrence Lau said.