OREANDA-NEWS.   Anhui ranked second in China in terms of the rise in industrial value-added output in the first quarter of 2013, local authorities said.

In March alone, the province's industrial output reached a record high of 75.3 billion yuan (USD 11.9 billion), up 14.5 percent year-on-year, the highest growth level ever, said the provincial economic and information technology commission, citing official statistics.

Value-added industrial output measures the final output value of industrial production, or the value of gross industrial output minus intermediate input, such as raw materials and labor costs.

Industrial enterprises' power consumption rose 4.99 percent year-on-year between January and March and 2.39 percent year-on-year in March alone, both ranking first in central China. All the six provinces in the region saw a drop in electricity consumption in the first quarter except Anhui and Jiangxi, according to a source with the commission.