26 Nov 2009 12:20

China's energy production rising - NDRC

Shanghai. November 26. INTERFAX-CHINA - China's energy production, including coal, oil products, natural gas and power, has grown on an annual basis over the first ten months of this year, the government announced on Nov. 26.

China produced 2.41 billion tons of coal in the first ten months, representing an annual increase of 11.4 percent, according to a monitoring report released by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the state economic planner.

The country's net coal imports grew to 77.97 million tons over the period, up from 2.36 million tons during the same period in 2008, as overseas coal prices had plunged more sharply than domestic coal prices in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, the report said.

In the oil sector, China produced 157.94 million tons of crude oil over the first ten months, representing a year-on-year decrease of 0.5 percent. Meanwhile, China's crude oil surged 9.4 percent year-on-year to 165.41 million tons, the report said.

China processed 307.13 million tons of crude oil in the first ten months, up by 5.2 percent year-on-year.

Furthermore, China produced 69.4 billion cubic meters of natural gas in the first ten months, up by 7.5 percent from the same period a year ago.

In the power sector, China generated 2.96 trillion kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity over the first ten months, representing an annual increase of 3.2 percent.

Power demand from China's industrial sector expanded 0.1 percent year-on-year from January to October, marking the first time this year that the sector's cumulative power consumption has grown on an annual basis, the NDRC said.

Among the four heaviest power consuming industries, the construction materials and steel smelting industries have both witnessed power consumption clock year-on-year growth over the period. Power consumption in the nonferrous metal smelting and chemical industries is still shrinking when compared with the same period in 2008, according to the NDRC.

These four industries accounted for 43.7 percent the industrial power consumption in China over the first ten months, according to the NDRC.

-WV