Economy

Markets

Industries

Insights

Reports

Events

Industrial demand for power to perk up in third quarter

By Xiao Wan (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-04-17 07:59

The downtrend in China's power consumption has slowed in March with demand expected to pick up over the next few months, according to the China Electricity Council (CEC).

"Although the power consumption still witnessed negative growth last month, the milder figures have showed some positive signs," said Xue Jing, director of the statistics and information department under the CEC.

The country's power generation, an important barometer of the economy, was 283.39 billion kWh in March, a decrease of 2.01 percent year-on-year. Power usage in the first quarter was 780.99 billion kWh, falling by 4.02 percent year-on-year, according to statistics with CEC.

But compared with the sharp drop in power usage in last November and December, power consumption has recovered, said Xue.

Since last October China's power consumption has seen a negative growth. In November and December, the usage dropped by around 10 percent year-on-year.

In March many provinces have seen a distinct recovery in power usage, showing their economy is in better shape, said Xue.

Provinces and municipalities like Beijing, Chongqing, Yunnan, Guizhou, Anhui and Jiangxi have all seen positive growth in their power consumption.

In some provinces such as Hunan in central China, the growth rate even exceeded 5 percent, she said.

"Compared with other regions, the eastern and southern part of China has seen a more distinct recovery in power consumption," said Xue.

What's more, the industrial use of electricity, which accounts for a big part in the overall power consumption, has seen some recovery, said Xue.

The industrial use of power dropped by around 3 percent in March this year, while it fell by 11 percent in December, she said.

"The good news is that in March power consumption in the light industry has seen a positive growth. This is visible in the textile and rubber industries in Zhejiang and Guangdong provinces," said Xue.

Big power users such as steel, non-ferrous metals and chemical sectors are yet to recover, she said.

Xue said it was still too early to predict if China's power consumption would see a positive growth in the second quarter. CEC earlier said that the consumption would start to pick up in the third quarter.

State Grid, the power transmitter in China, said Tuesday that power consumption this year may go up by 3-5 percent.