SUPPLY CHAIN ALERTS

The China Government has implemented very strict electricity usage control which seriously impacts the production of many factories in China. Power rationing and forced cuts to factory production in China are widening amid electricity supply issues and a push to enforce environmental regulations. The curbs have expanded to more than 10 provinces, including economic powerhouses Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Guangdong.

Local governments are ordering the power cuts as they try to avoid missing targets for reducing energy and emissions intensity. Meanwhile, record high coal prices are making it unprofitable for many power plants to operate, creating supply gaps in some provinces, the Business Herald reported.

In Zhejiang, about 160 energy-intensive companies in the textile, dyeing and chemical fiber industries have been ordered to halt production to meet energy consumption targets, Caixin reported. About 80% of the companies are in Ma’an, where a production halt order was issued from September 21-30, the report said, citing an unnamed official.

Emergency power cuts were also ordered across 14 cities in the northern province of Liaoning after the grid suffered supply shortfalls, according to a notice on the local grid operator’s social media late Thursday. “Power suppliers will spare no effort to keep providing electricity to residents, hospitals, schools, radio, TV, telecommunications, transportation hubs and other important users,” the notice said.

The power problems come after recent port disruptions in China rippled across global supply chains. Part of Ningbo port, one of the world’s busiest, was idled for weeks last month following a COVID-19 outbreak, while Yantian port in Shenzhen was shut in May.

Timing could not be worse as producers and shippers race to meet demand for everything from clothing to toys for the year-end holiday shopping season, grappling with supply lines that have been upended by soaring raw material costs, long delays at ports and shortages of shipping containers.

~ Courtesy of Noatum Logistics