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China's power consumption rose at a slower pace last month because of weakening demand from heavy industries.
Power use in the second-largest energy consuming nation increased about 14 percent in June to 352 billion kilowatt-hours, the National Energy Administration said today on its website. That compares with growth of about 21 percent in May.
"The power numbers show a slight slowdown, primarily because of slower manufacturing in China," Dave Dai, an analyst at the Daiwa Institute of Research, said by telephone from Hong Kong.
The nation's January-June power consumption jumped 22 percent to 2.01 trillion kilowatt-hours, the administration said. China started operating 33.83 gigawatts of hydro and coal-fired power plants in the first half, it said.