China's electricity producers continued to close the gap with demand in the first half year, meeting soaring consumption with increased supply, said the China Electricity Council (CEC) spokesman.

Wang Yonggan, secretary-general of the CEC, Monday said overall electricity demand and supply tension since 2004 had eased greatly and the trend was continuing.

Only four regions reported shortages this June during the summer peak, sharply down from the 25 regions at the beginning of 2005, said Wang.

CEC figures showed consumption in the first six months reached 1.31 trillion kilowatt-hours (kWh), up 12.89 percent from the same period last year.

The industrial sector consumed 983.1 billion kWh with demand of light and heavy industries rising by 9.69 percent and 14.2 percent respectively.

Four heavy industrial sectors saw significant rises with chemicals up 12.27 percent, building materials 14. 48 percent, ferrous metals 15.65 percent and non-ferrous metals 23.8 percent.

Their consumption growth represented 50.1 percent of the total growth of the industrial sector, said Wang.

In the first half, 32.41 million kW of installed capacity was put into production and China produced 1.27 trillion kWh, up 12 percent.

Coal-fired installed capacity accounted for 88.48 percent of the total new capacity in the first half year, and hydropower, 11.1 percent. However, Wang said too much coal-fired installed capacity was inappropriate for China's electricity supply structure.

The CEC predicted that in the second half, supply and demand would be a little tense during the summer peak, but would ease from September.

Installed capacity put into production would hit a record 75 million kW this year.

Total electricity consumption this year would rise by 12 percent year on year, higher than the growth of the GDP, said Wang.

China's GDP grew by 10.9 percent in the first half year, 0.9 percent higher than the same period last year, according to figures from the National Bureau of Statistics.

Source: Xinhua