It says they stopped for four months, not permanently and definitely didn’t move to the USA

"Four months" means the winter, right? So, it must have helped with "lowering winter consumption".

Fair point about moving to the US, though.

Highest gas prices were in August, not winter.

That's correct, but the TFA is about how Europe cut energy consumption this winter.

I think the reason is twofold:

1. Industries can probably not afford to cut production immediately

2. At least in France, there were worries about gas availability for the winter. The government tried to have industries lower their consumption to not run out of the reserves during the winter.

that's anecdotal at best, not data. Finding links on the internet is not enough to identify a trend.

The French national gas distribution company was talking about a significant reduction in industry consumption of 23% compared to 2018-2019 (to exclude covid), even when adjusted for weather.

https://www.grtgaz.com/en/en/our-actions/continuity-of-gas-t...

I haven't found a similar source for electricity, though articles I've seen talk of reductions, too.

Well, the government asked them to consume less so some reduction is expected.

The part of the claim you have taken upon yourself to substantiate is that the reduction is mainly (or even mostly) due to industry getting closed down completely or relocated specifically to the US.