China January Power Use Gains 40% as Economy Recovers

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Feb. 12 (Bloomberg) -- China’s January electricity consumption jumped 40.1 percent from a year earlier as an economic recovery in the world’s second-biggest power producer spurred demand from factories.

Power use reached 353.1 billion kilowatt-hours last month, 2.7 percent higher than in December, the Beijing-based National Energy Administration said on its Web site today. Consumption by secondary industries, which includes manufacturing and construction, grew 46 percent to 262.4 billion kilowatt-hours.

China’s power consumption may rise 9 percent this year, 2 percentage points more than in 2009, the state-owned China Electricity Council said on Jan. 26. The Chinese economy, which expanded at the fastest pace in the fourth quarter since 2007, will increase four times faster than the U.S. in 2010, the United Nations said in December.

The jump in electricity demand last month was caused by a low base last year, when the economy slumped, Martin Wang, an analyst with Guotai Junan Securities, said by telephone from Hong Kong. “The month-on-month growth looks fine and is following the usual seasonal trend for these two months.”

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