Another U.S. Utility Giant Blames Trade Wars for Pinching Sales

(Bloomberg) --

Add Southern Co. to the list of electric utilities seeing sales hurt by President Donald Trump’s trade wars.

Southern’s electricity sales to industrial customers dropped 2% during the first half of the year due in part to trade disputes and a strong U.S. dollar, the company reported Wednesday. It was a rare down note in an otherwise positive quarter for the utility owner, which beat analysts’ revenue expectations by 2.6%.

FirstEnergy Corp. and American Electric Power Co. have already reported seeing sales drop to industrial customers. AEP Chief Executive Officer Nick Akins, chief executive officer of AEP, called trade disputes the “biggest economic headwind” facing his company.

“Trade skirmishes are a vacuum to good capital deployment,” Southern Chief Financial Officer Andrew Evans told analysts on a conference call Wednesday.

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