China 2010 Energy Consumption Rises 5.9%, National Statistics Bureau Says

China increased energy consumption by 5.9 percent last year as factories ramped up production to fuel the world’s fastest-growing major economy, data from the National Bureau of Statistics show.

Energy use climbed to 3.25 billion metric tons of coal equivalent in 2010, the bureau said in a statement on its website today. Consumption fell 4.01 percent per unit of gross domestic product, according to the bureau.

Economic growth accelerated to 10.3 percent in 2010, the fastest pace in three years, as industrial production rose, boosting demand for fuel and electricity. Crude oil consumption expanded 12.9 percent last year while power use gained 13.1 percent, according to the bureau.

Natural gas demand rose 18.2 percent and coal consumption gained 5.3 percent, the bureau said.

China aims to reduce energy use per unit of GDP by as much as 17 percent in the five years ending 2015, after failing to meet a target to cut consumption by 20 percent in the 2006-to- 2010 period, Premier Wen Jiabao said yesterday.

The government has set an annual economic growth target of 7 percent for the five-year period through 2015, Wen said. China’s goal was 7.5 percent for the period from 2006 through last year. Actual growth exceeded that target each year.

- Wang Ying. Editors: Ryan Woo, Aaron Sheldrick.

To contact the reporter on this story: Wang Ying in Beijing at ywang30@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Amit Prakash at aprakash1@bloomberg.net.

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