Japan's electricity demand falls lower than just after quake period

Electricity supply in Japan fell 0.8% from a year ago in May to 68.5 billion kilowatt-hour, according to the Federation of Electric Power Companies. Electricity supply in the country has decreased on year in the past five consecutive months. Since power demands in spring and autumn are not affected by heat wave or chilly weather, lower electricity demand in these seasons suggests fundamental slump.

Japanese electricity demand in April and May this year were also lower than that in the same period in 2011, when severe earthquake damaged many power generation facilities and turmoil in transportation system depressed industrial activity across the country.

Petroleum consumption for thermal power generation by Japanese 10 major utility firms fell 24.9% from a year earlier in May to 347,000 barrels per day, while use of liquefied natural gas decreased 4.5% on year to 4.21 million tonnes. Petroleum consumption has decreased by more than 20% on year in the past four consecutive months.

Indicators of industrial trends such as Industrial Production Index have been recovering since late last year. However, electricity demand does not follow the movement recently. Although both industrial production and electricity demand are used for calculation of business coincident index in Japan, current electricity demand seems not to reflect the industrial trend due to extreme power saving.