Energy Consumption Climbed up 3.04% in Q1    

In the first quarter of 2009, China's energy supply rose 3.45% year on year, to 655 million tons of standard coal, 1.65 percentage points higher over the growth in the fourth quarter of 2008, according to the report released by the National Bureau of Statistics of China (NBS) on May 4th.
   The national energy consumption for Q1 amounted to 664 million tons of standard coal, up 3.04% from a year earlier.
   Under the preliminary calculation, considering GDP stood at 6.1%, the national energy consumption of per unit GDP in Q1 dropped 2.89% year-on-year, raising 0.27 percentage points compared with 2.62% in Q1 2008.   
   These latest figures reflected that the central government's efforts to stimulate economic growth and reduce energy consumption have taken effects together. NBS said.
   As of the end of the first quarter 2009, energy stocks in the country fell 2.91% from the beginning of 2009, showing a seasonally declined trend.
   In the first quarter, coal consumption reached 649 million tons, up 2.69% year on year, raising 10.71 percentage points over previous quarter. Electricity consumption arrived at 781 billion kWh, fell 4.02% year-on-year, and narrowed 1.98 percentage points from previous quarter. Oil products consumption amounted to 57.35 million tons, down 6.35% year on year, 3.83 percentage points high over quarter earlier.
   The energy consumption dropped 10.59% on quarterly basis for the chemical raw materials industry and boomed up 3.32% in the building materials industry.  
   The energy consumption of unit value-added of industrial in the nation's industrial sectors reduced in general. Energy consumption of unit value-added for chemical raw materials industry decreased 14.44% year on year, and that for petroleum and chemical industry dropped 9.80%.