S. Korea's industrial power sales dip 1.4 pct in May

By Lee Joon-seung

SEOUL, June 14 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's industrial power sales dipped 1.4 percent on-year in May due to weak export demand and production cutbacks, the government said Sunday.

The Ministry of Knowledge Economy said the 28.3 percent drop in exports last
month compared to the year before and scaled-back production of steel and
petrochemicals affected sales.
Sales of industrial power, covering both manufacturing and mining businesses,
accounted for 55 percent of all domestic electricity sales provided by Korea
Electric Power Corp.
In the first five months of this year, industrial electricity output declined 4.0
percent annually. Sales growth has been in minus territory since November and
contracted 11 percent on-year in January.
Sales rebounded to log positive growth of 0.7 in April from negative 5.5 percent
and 2.8 percent tallied for February and March, respectively.
"Despite falling back into negative territory again last month, sales have on the
whole started to show signs of recovery," a ministry official said, adding that
there is a close link between power sales and economic growth.
The ministry, in charge of the country's industrial and energy policies, said
sales of household, regular and education-related power all reported growth of
4-10 percent last month vis-a-vis May 2008, while power used for the agriculture
and fishery sectors jumped 9.6 percent on-year.
Regular power refers to electricity sold for public facilities, shops, and office
buildings. These include large discount and department stores.
For the entire country, electricity sales were up 1.0 percent on-year in May,
while for the first five months of this year growth contracted 0.8 percent.