One source with the company said that in some high energy consuming regions, such as southern Hebei province with a large number of steel mills, power generation saw growth of 26 percent. In Henan province, which also has many steel production facilities, power output saw 11.6 percent growth.

"This shows that some heavy manufacturing industries, which account for a large part in total power use, have seen distinct recovery," said the source with State Grid.

China's power generation has seen negative growth in the first five months of this year. In April the figure dropped by 3.55 percent year-on-year. In May the figure declined by 3.5 percent.

Xue Jing, director of the statistics and information department under the China Electricity Council, agreed that increasing industrial activities and the heat wave contributed to the power consumption and output, but said more prudent observations are needed to tell whether the economy would embark on a new round of growth.

"Although the power generation and consumption began to pick up, we cannot be too optimistic about the figure," said Xue.

(China Daily July 17, 2009)