Korea’s industrial electricity sales rise 2.9% in September

This despite a drop in exports.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy reported that sales of industrial electricity reached 21.8 billion kilowatt hours in September. Industrial electricity sales are a traditional indicator of industrial activity since companies use more electricity when business is lucrative and cut back when demand is low.

Electricity consumption jumped due to a rise in exports of semiconductors and wireless telecommunication devices that require a lot of electricity to manufacture, the ministry said.

Overall sales of electricity grew 2.4% on-year to 38.78 billion kilowatt hours in September, as the use of electricity by households rose 2.7% during the Chuseok holiday. Chuseok, the Korean equivalent of Thanksgiving, is one of two major holidays in South Korea, the other being Lunar New Year. South Koreans had five consecutive days off from Sept. 18, which removed two business days from the month compared to a year ago.