CHINA Datang Corp, the nation's second-largest power producer, may miss its full-year output target due to slowing demand growth and delayed expansions.

Production in the third quarter has lagged behind previously set targets, the Beijing-based company said yesterday.

China's economy grew 10.1 percent in the three months ended June 30 from a year earlier, slowing its expansion for a fourth straight quarter as exports cooled, Bloomberg News reported.

China's electricity consumption has declined after exporters shut factories and steel producers curbed output as the world economy teeters on the brink of the steepest recession in 70 years.

"Local power output growth has fallen to below 10 percent for a fourth straight month in September because of a slowing economy," said Yan Shi, an analyst with Core Pacific-Yamaichi International Ltd. "The full-year growth will probably be less than 10 percent,'' Yan said. China Datang didn't give details on delays to plant constructions.

China's power production climbed 9.9 percent to 2.61 billion megawatt-hours in the first nine months, the China Electricity Council said Wednesday. Production gained 14 percent to 3.26 billion megawatt hours in 2007.

China Datang is the parent of Datang International Power Generation Co.

The company's power generation gained 17 percent to 258.3 billion kilowatt-hours in the first nine months, China Datang said.

About half of China's toy exporters closed in the first seven months of this year, Xinhua News Agency reported earlier this month.