High energy-consuming sectors grow slower in H1

Tag : Building Materials

China's high energy-consuming industries experienced a growthslowdown in the first half, sources with the Ministry of Industryand Information Technology said on Friday.
The six high energy-consuming sectors in China -- electric power,nonferrous metals, chemicals, iron and steel, building materials,and petroleum -- recorded a growth of 14.5 percent in output, 5.6percentage points lower than the growth rate for the same periodlast year.
The government has adopted a policy of curbing the development ofhigh energy-consuming and high-polluting sectors, in order to helpimprove environmental protection and achieve a sustainable economicgrowth.
Despite the declining growth rate, investment in some of the sixsectors still increased at an accelerated speed. Over the past halfyear, investment in nonmetals mining rose 46.7 percent and dressingand nonferrous metals smelting 39.2 percent.
Some experts attributed the investment rise to the localgovernments seeking more investment to boost their GDP growth.
The central government set a goal to reduce the energy intensityindex (measured by energy consumption per 10,000 yuan of GDP) by 20percent and major pollutants discharges by 10 percent for the2006-2010 period. The energy intensity index went down 3.27 percentlast year.
Despite efforts to adjust the country's industrial structure so asto reduce the weight of energy-consuming sectors and to attain a"greener" economy, heavy industry still grew faster at 17.3 percentthan light industry at 13.9 percent from January to May, accordingto the National Development and Reform Commission.