May found China's foreign sales of prefabricated homes grow at a slower pace, partly because of increasing demand at home for disaster relief after the May 12 earthquake.

China exported 130 million U.S. dollars worth of prefabricated homes in May, a growth of 41.9 percent over the same month of last year, the General Administration of Customs said on Sunday.

But the growth rate was 3.4 percentage points lower than the April level, or down 6.8 percentage points from the monthly average for the January-April period.

Between January and May, the prefabricated home exports amounted to 570 million U.S. dollars worth nationwide, up 47.1 percent.

The European Union, Russia and the United States were the top three target markets. Over the five months, 33.3 percent of the total prefabricated home exports, or 190 million U.S. dollars worth, were sold to the EU, up 27.7 percent, 60 million dollars worth, to Russia, up 67.3 percent, and 40 million dollars worth, to the United States, down 2.6 percent.

(Xinhua News Agency July 27, 2008)