China processors resume ops as power returns

SINGAPORE (ICIS news)--Most Chinese textile and plastic makers have resumed operations after the holidays as power supply was gradually restored in southern China, traders and the processors said on Wednesday.

“We experienced power cut for two days a week before the Chinese New Year but that is now reduced to one day,” a foam maker in Kunshan, southeastern Jiangsu province, said in Mandarin.

The country’s miners worked through the Chinese New Year holidays to ensure sufficient supply after heavy snowstorms in late January broke power transmission lines and closed roads and rails, cutting coal supply to power plants in the south.

Road and rail traffic resumed last week after the holidays ended and the weather cleared up.

Although some cities in Zhejiang and Guangdong provinces started rationing power for industrial purposes this week to safeguard residents’ supply, most processors could work around this by adjusting their production schedule, said an official from the Association of Guangdong Shoes Manufacturers.

“Our power supply has been restored to normal but I heard some processors in Foshan and Nanhai [both in Guangdong] are experiencing blackouts for up to five days a week,” a plastics processor in Guangdong's Dongguan said in Cantonese.

A Foshan plastic pipe maker said he had to reduce his output, but added that the power shortage problem was not serious.

In southwest Sichuan province, agricultural film production was gradually recovering after being hit by the power cuts, traders said.

Shenzhen, another major manufacturing base in southern China, was unaffected by power cuts, an official from the local processors association said.