The latest statistics released by the National Energy Administration show that electricity consumption in the whole society increased by 10.7% month-on-month in July, of which industrial power consumption increased by 8.5% month-on-month, and heavy industry power consumption increased by 9.7% month-on-month.
 
However, the same period data released by the Bureau of Statistics showed that some energy-intensive industries, such as steel, cement, automobiles, and some refined oil products, experienced a month-on-month decline in output in July. In July, steel production fell by 3.77 million tons from the previous month, a decrease of 5.3%, cement production fell by 5.5% from the previous month, and automobile production capacity fell by 6.2% from the previous month.

The divergence between industrial electricity consumption and industrial output data in July has once again caused industry insiders to question the authenticity of the statistics on capacity elimination.

"The data of a province in central China that shut down the outdated production capacity of about 500,000 tons of electrolytic aluminum per year may be mixed with water, otherwise the industry's electricity consumption will not increase so fast. "Zhang Xi of Luzheng Futures believes.

According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, China's electrolytic aluminum production reached 1.352 million tons in July, down 3.6% from the 1.41 million tons in June. At the same time, the output of refined copper, another major power-consuming industry in the non-ferrous metal industry, also fell 5.7% month-on-month.

But what is strange is that the reporter learned from China Telecom that electricity consumption in the non-ferrous metal industry rose sharply in July.

"Even if Ningxia's electrolytic aluminum production capacity of more than 300,000 tons is launched, it will not make up for the statistical gap in the increase in electricity consumption caused by the decline in production capacity of 500,000 tons. "Zhang Xi said.

Zhao Yuesi, director of the Economic Commission of Changsha City, found in a recent survey that some companies are "splendid" in the elimination of production capacity.

For example, some companies received 1.89 million yuan of national incentive funds for shutting down outdated production capacity last year, but found that their "outdated" production lines are still in production; some companies have closed their main plant production capacity, but are located in Gaoxin The branch plant in the district has not been closed.

"When necessary, relevant government departments may require power supply companies to stop power supply to enterprises with backward production capacity in accordance with the law. "For these "tricks" played by local enterprises, the Hunan Provincial Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued a warning.

To this end, the Hunan Industry and Information Technology Department is preparing to increase its efforts to shut down the backward production capacity of the enterprises included in the list of eliminated backward production capacity by the end of September 2010.

The survey results in Hunan are a microcosm of the elimination of false and backward production capacity by some enterprises across the country.

A person from the Industrial Department of a province in central China once said that many companies secretly restored outdated production capacity when the economy was accelerating. Although the province announced that it had completed the elimination of outdated production capacity of cement kilns last year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's "blacklist" showed many new directories of cement kiln enterprises in the province.

“Many companies reduce production more to take advantage of the market downturn. When the market price rebounds, they will often resume production again. "The above-mentioned person said.

The reporter learned that steel production capacity began to recover in late July due to rising steel prices. Taking Tangshan as an example, the city’s report pointed out that in July, the electricity consumption of ferrous metal smelting and rolling processing industry decreased.

Zhang Lin of the Lange Steel Information Research Center also believes that the current national steel production data may have a certain degree of "moisture". In order to protect their own interests, certain companies may engage in fraudulent behaviors ranging from corporate production capacity data to various equipment data.

Some small steel companies in Tangshan City visited by Zhang Lin found out that their output was under-reported. "A certain municipal government has certain restrictions on steel companies. For example, a company limited 3 million tons from 2004 to the present. According to the reported data, it has not exceeded the standard, but in fact there is a situation of capacity expansion. ”

Xue Jing, director of the statistics department of the China Electricity Council, said that it is difficult to draw conclusions for the time being whether it can be concluded from the industrial electricity consumption data in July that the electricity consumption of the entire high-energy-consuming industry is growing rapidly.

In July, the added value of industrial enterprises above designated size increased by 13.4% year-on-year, 0.3 percentage points lower than that in June; from January to July, the added value of industrial enterprises above designated size increased by 17.0% year-on-year, down 0.6 percentage points from the first half of the year.

Sheng Laiyun, spokesperson for the National Bureau of Statistics, said that the industrial growth rate dropped by 0.3 percentage points, 70% of which was caused by the decline in the growth rate of the six major energy-intensive industries. The supervision of emission reduction has increased the elimination of backward production capacity.

-----Source: 21st Century Business Herald