So much for the Chinese "slowdown". Think my Train Wreck scenario is what will work:
Reuters
China's Q1 power consumption up 16.4 pct yr/yr
Thursday April 8, 5:46 am ET
BEIJING, April 8 (Reuters) - Power consumption in China, the world's second-largest electricity consumer, rose to 480 billion kilowatt hours in the first quarter of 2004, up 16.4 percent from the year-earlier period, the Xinhua news agency said on Thursday.
Brownouts hit around three quarters of mainland China's 31 provinces and regions in the first three months and the power crunch was expected to be worsening this summer, Xinhua quoted State Grid Corp as saying.
Experts attributed the demand growth in the first quarter mainly to the booming power-intensive steel and aluminium industries.
The power crunch was also caused by a shortage in coal supply as three-quarters of China's capacity are fired by coal, and insufficient water supply at some hydropower stations, it said.
Electricity shortfall was expected to reach 30,000 megawatts this year, the highest in recent years, Xinhua said.
Booming Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces and metropolitan Shanghai would account for more than half of the shortfall, or 17,000 megawatts, it said.
Driven by a strong economic expansion, China's power consumption hit 1.891 billion megawatt hours in 2003, up 15.4 percent from the previous year. That was second only to the United States. |
