China's electricity consumption picks up in July

BEIJING - China's electricity use rose 8.2 percent year on year in July, official data showed Tuesday.

In July alone, electricity consumption totaled 552.3 billion kilowatt hours, according to data from the National Development and Reform Commission.

Electricity consumption totaled 3.3 trillion kilowatt hours in the first seven months, up 3.6 percent year on year, the commission said.

Electricity use in the service sector and agricultural sector rose 10.2 percent and 6.4 percent, respectively, in the January-June period, while the industrial sector saw an increase of 1.6 percent.

Meanwhile, the average use time for hydraulic power production equipment increased in the first seven months, while that for coal-fired power production equipment dropped, official data showed.