Energy Production in March 2024

In March, the production of coal, crude petroleum oil, natural gas, and electricity by industrial enterprises above the designated size generally trended to a stable level.

I. Coal, Crude Petroleum Oil and Natural Gas Production and Relevant Information

The production of coal basically leveled off, and the import increased year on year. In March, 400 million tons of coal were produced by industrial enterprises above the designated size, down by 4.2 percent year on year, and flat in growth rate over January-February; the coal production that averaged 12.88 million tons per day remained at a high level. The import of coal stood at 41.38 million tons, up by 0.5 percent year on year.

From January to March, 1.11 billion tons of coal were produced by industrial enterprises above the designated size, down by 4.1 percent year on year. The import of coal stood at 120 million tons, up by 13.9 percent year on year.

The production of crude petroleum oil maintained steady growth, and the import changed from increasing to decreasing. In March, 18.37 million tons of crude petroleum oil were produced by industrial enterprises above the designated size, up by 1.2 percent year on year, a growth rate of 1.7 percentage points slower than that from January to February, with an average daily output of 593,000 tons. The import of crude petroleum oil stood at 49.05 million tons, down by 6.2 percent year on year.

From January to March, 53.48 million tons of crude petroleum oil were processed by industrial enterprises above the designated size, up by 2.3 percent year on year. The import of crude petroleum oil stood at 137.36 million tons, up by 0.7 percent year on year.

Crude petroleum oil processing picked up. In March, 63.78 million tons of crude petroleum oil were processed by industrial enterprises above the designated size, up by 1.3 percent year on year, a growth rate of 1.7 percentage points slower than that from January to February, with an average daily processing capacity of 2.057 million tons. From January to March, 182.46 million tons of crude petroleum oil were processed, up by 2.4 percent year on year.

The production of natural gas hit an all-time high, and the import kept rapid growth. In March, 21.6 billion cubic meters of natural gas were produced by industrial enterprises above the designated size, up by 4.5 percent year on year, a growth rate of 1.4 percentage points slower than that from January to February, with an average daily output of 700 million cubic meters. The import of natural gas stood at 10.76 million tons, up by 22.0 percent year on year.

From January to March, 63.2 billion tons of natural gas were produced by industrial enterprises above the designated size, up by 5.2 percent year on year. The import of natural gas stood at 32.79 million tons, up by 22.8 percent year on year.

II. Electricity Generation

Power generation maintained steady growth. In March, 747.7 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity were generated by industrial enterprises above the designated size, up by 2.8 percent year on year, a growth rate of 5.5 percentage points slower than that from January to February, with an average daily electricity generation capacity of 24.12 billion kilowatt-hours. From January to March, 2.2372 trillion kilowatt-hours of electricity were generated by industrial enterprises above the designated size, up by 6.7 percent year on year.

From the perspective of energy sources, in March, the growth rate of hydropower, wind power and solar power generated by industrial enterprises above the designated size accelerated, that of thermal power generation slowed down and that of nuclear-power generation changed from increasing to decreasing. Among them, the growth rate of thermal power generation increased by 0.5 percent year on year, down by 9.2 percentage points over January-February; that of hydropower generation increased by 3.1 percent, up by 2.3 percentage points over January-February; that of nuclear-power generation decreased by 4.8 percent, compared with an increase of 3.5 percent from January to February; that of wind power generation increased by 16.8 percent, up by 11.0 percentage points over January-February; that of solar power generation increased by 15.8 percent, up by 0.4 percentage point over January-February.

Annotations:

1. Explanatory Notes

Average daily product output: It is calculated by dividing the total output of industrial enterprises above the designated size announced in that month by the calendar days of that month.

2. Statistical Coverage

The statistical caliber of the output data in the report is the industrial enterprises above the designated size, and the statistical scope is industrial enterprises with an annual main business revenue of 20 million yuan and above.

Because the scope of industrial enterprises above the designated size changes every year, in order to ensure that this year's data is comparable with the previous year's, cumulative figures for the same period last year used to calculate the growth rate of various indicators such as product output is consistent with the statistical scope of enterprises in this period, and there is a caliber difference between the data released this year and last year.

3. Data Source

Import data came from the General Administration of Customs of the People's Republic of China, of which March 2024 data is express data.

4. Conversion relationship of natural gas units: 1 ton is equal to 1,380 cubic meters.