German power, gas prices down, seen rebounding-NUS

FRANKFURT, June 30 (Reuters) - German industrial energy
customers have benefitted from lower energy costs, seeing power
prices fall by a quarter and those of gas by over a third in the
year to June 1, an international survey showed on Tuesday.

Consultants NUS said although Germany has some of the
highest energy prices overall, the trend will start to reverse
later this year.

"The (gas) market currently is flooded with supply as
businesses have cut back on production," it said.

It added, "Being near historic lows, both electricity and
natural gas pricing should pick up during the latter part of
this year, rebounding even stronger in mid 2010."

NUS Deutschland in a survey of 14 industrialised countries
showed German power prices were down 25.3 percent year-on-year,
ranking it the second most expensive in the past 12 months.

The decline in fuel prices came amid traders' fear of more
production cuts by Germany's export-oriented manufacturing
industry after output of products such as steel plummeted to
their worst levels in its postwar history, NUS said.

Power transmission costs, by comparison, fell as stricter
government regulation has begun to show effects.

Industrial gas prices dropped by 36.4 percent to June 1 as a
consequence of being tied to collapsing oil prices, to which
they are index-linked with a time lag, NUS also said.

German gas transport costs were also still considered high.

For the NUS power prices table please click [ID:nLU159981]

For the NUS gas prices table please click [ID:nLT161142]

(Reporting by Vera Eckert)