(Yicai) July 31 -- Beijing Haixin Energy Technology has become the latest listed Chinese company to announce salary cuts for senior executives because of the declining stock price.

Haixin Energy will lower the annual salary of its senior executives, including that of its general manager by more than 30 percent, according to the Beijing-based chemicals producer’s salary reduction plan released late on July 29.

Haixin Energy [SHE: 300072] was trading down 1.8 percent at CNY2.15 (30 US cents) as of lunch break in Shenzhen today. The stock has plunged 39 percent so far this year.

Haixin Energy, whose actual controller is the Beijing Haidian District State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, reported net losses of CNY84.2 million (USD11.6 million) last year and CNY120 million (USD16.6 million) in the first quarter of this year.

Salary cuts have been common among listed Chinese firms since last year. The total remuneration of the senior management of non-financial listed companies fell 1.2 percent to CNY45.2 billion (USD6.2 billion) last year from the previous one, according to data from Wind Information.

It has also been popular among senior executives at companies experiencing performance declines, losses, or stock price drops to voluntarily propose salary cuts, which were usually accepted.

Other companies that recently announced salary reduction plans are Dalian Friendship Group, CPT Technology Group, and KBC.

Dalian Friendship said it would focus all its efforts on increasing the revenue and profit of its main business and introduced supporting measures, such as lowering costs, improving efficiency, and cutting salaries.

Shares of Dalian Friendship [SHE: 000679] rose 0.7 percent to CNY3.12 as of 11.30 a.m. in Shenzhen today. They have dropped 43 percent so far this year.

CPT recently claimed its senior management began to reduce their salaries in 2022. The electronics component maker’s shares [SHE: 000536] were trading up 2.1 percent at CNY1.92 as of lunch break in Shenzhen today but have fallen 51 percent since the beginning of the year.

Chinese carbon material firm KBC unveiled that it reduced the average salary of its senior management members by 18 percent last year and 48 percent in 2022 compared to 2021.

KBC [SHA: 688598] rose 4.1 percent to CNY16.93 (USD2.34) as of lunch break in Shanghai today. The stock has plunged 63 percent this year, 83 percent since the beginning of last year, and nearly 90 percent since the start of 2022.

Editor: Futura Costaglione