Taiwan energy use falls for 8th straight month on recession

Consumption of coal, petroleum, gas, solar energy and electricity dropped 13 percent from a year earlier to the equivalent of 8.3 million kiloliters of oil, or about 1.86 million barrels a day, the Taipei-based Bureau of Energy said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. Industrial users led the decline, slashing energy use by 19 percent.

Taiwan's industrial output slumped 27 percent in February, the sixth straight drop, as the global recession hurt demand for the island's semiconductors, display panels and mobile phones, a government report showed March 24. Gross domestic product will probably shrink 2.97 percent this year, the statistics bureau in Taipei said in February.

Nanya Technology Corp., Taiwan's second-biggest memory chip maker, said in January it would lower output by between 15 percent and 20 percent in the first quarter compared with the final three months of 2008, as the global financial crisis worsens a glut in the industry.

Utilization rates at crude oil distillation units operated by Formosa Petrochemical Corp. and CPC Corp., Taiwan's only oil refiners, were little changed at 81 percent in February, compared with 79 percent in January, the energy bureau said. The units separate crude oil into different oil products and form the main part of a refinery.

Consumption of petroleum products plunged 21 percent from a year earlier to the equivalent of 3.49 million kiloliters of oil in February, according to the energy bureau.

Natural gas use dropped 15 percent to 109 million cubic meters in February, and that of coal declined 16 percent to 4.08 million metric tons.

Power consumption fell 2.6 percent to 16.2 billion kilowatt-hours, with demand from industrial companies 9.8 percent lower than a year earlier.

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