Power crisis now another worry for China

September 30, 2021: China, the world’s manufacturing, shipping, logistics behemoth, is now facing another crisis: power shortage, which is affecting factory floors to homes across the country.

Everstream Analytics, a supply chain risk analytics company, said in an update that the most affected provinces have so far been Jiangsu (51 percent), Yunnan (10 percent), and Zhejiang (8 percent), but power consumption cuts have also been reported in other provinces, including Liaoning, Tianjin, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Yunnan, Guangxi, and Fujian.

The latest developments come as provincial authorities attempt to meet the central energy-saving plan, formally called the Dual Control System of Total Energy Consumption and Energy Intensity. The plan intends to reduce national energy consumption per unit of GDP by 13.5 percent and cut carbon emissions by 18 percent by 2025.

Guangdong, the heavily industrialised southern province, implemented a new round of power rationing for industrial users, cutting supply to only two or three days a week, S&P Platts reported.

The shortages would force companies to raise prices of goods for Chinese consumers and push up inflation, Bloomberg reported, quoting People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party.

China's power consumption increased 13.8 percent over January-August while power generation increased only 11.3 percent over the same period, Plates said, quoting data from China’s National Development and Reform Commission.