China aims to restore most of its power lines before the Lunar New Year and reopened its airports even as more snow is forecast in the country's heaviest snowstorms in half a century.
The country needs to "ensure" the restoration of most electricity networks before the holiday, which starts on Wednesday, the National Development and Reform Commission said in a statement on its Web site yesterday. The worst affected are Hunan, Jiangxi and Guizhou provinces, which have only half their normal power capacity, it said.
More than two weeks of snow in central and southern China have brought transport networks to a standstill, killed at least 60 people and 15.8 million livestock and caused economic losses of at least 53.8 billion yuan (US$7.5 billion). The snow is forecast to continue until tomorrow after a temporary halt yesterday, Xinhua news agency said, citing the Central Meteorological Station.
"We have the faith, courage and ability to overcome the severe natural disaster," Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶), who was on board a train to disaster-hit central Hunan Province, was cited as saying by Xinhua.
PetroChina Co (
China has mobilized all its railway container trucks to ensure the transport of coal, Xinhua said yesterday, citing the Ministry of Railway. Coal shipments were increased to a record 42,200 trucks a day from Friday, it said. China relies on coal for 78 percent of its electricity.
By Thursday, domestic coal producers had total inventory of 34.7 million tonnes, 11.3 percent lower than the end of last year and down 1.8 percent from the same period a year earlier, Xinhua said, citing figures released by the State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS).
As much as 90 percent of key state-owned coal mines have been asked to continue production during the Lunar New Year holiday, it said, citing SAWS. Shenhua Group Corp (神華集團), China's biggest coal producer, could produce 20.2 million tonnes this month, higher than last month's 18 million tonnes, Xinhua said.
All airports were open yesterday, Xinhua said, citing the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China. On Saturday, the official news agency had said airports in Hangzhou and Ningbo were closed.
WEAKER ACTIVITY: The sharpest deterioration was seen in the electronics and optical components sector, with the production index falling 13.2 points to 44.5 Taiwan’s manufacturing sector last month contracted for a second consecutive month, with the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) slipping to 48, reflecting ongoing caution over trade uncertainties, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The decline reflects growing caution among companies amid uncertainty surrounding US tariffs, semiconductor duties and automotive import levies, and it is also likely linked to fading front-loading activity, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said. “Some clients have started shifting orders to Southeast Asian countries where tariff regimes are already clear,” Lien told a news conference. Firms across the supply chain are also lowering stock levels to mitigate
Six Taiwanese companies, including contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), made the 2025 Fortune Global 500 list of the world’s largest firms by revenue. In a report published by New York-based Fortune magazine on Tuesday, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), ranked highest among Taiwanese firms, placing 28th with revenue of US$213.69 billion. Up 60 spots from last year, TSMC rose to No. 126 with US$90.16 billion in revenue, followed by Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) at 348th, Pegatron Corp (和碩) at 461st, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) at 494th and Wistron Corp (緯創) at
NEW PRODUCTS: MediaTek plans to roll out new products this quarter, including a flagship mobile phone chip and a GB10 chip that it is codeveloping with Nvidia Corp MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday projected that revenue this quarter would dip by 7 to 13 percent to between NT$130.1 billion and NT$140 billion (US$4.38 billion and US$4.71 billion), compared with NT$150.37 billion last quarter, which it attributed to subdued front-loading demand and unfavorable foreign exchange rates. The Hsinchu-based chip designer said that the forecast factored in the negative effects of an estimated 6 percent appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar against the greenback. “As some demand has been pulled into the first half of the year and resulted in a different quarterly pattern, we expect the third quarter revenue to decline sequentially,”
ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip assembly and testing service provider, yesterday said it would boost equipment capital expenditure by up to 16 percent for this year to cope with strong customer demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Aside from AI, a growing demand for semiconductors used in the automotive and industrial sectors is to drive ASE’s capacity next year, the Kaohsiung-based company said. “We do see the disparity between AI and other general sectors, and that pretty much aligns the scenario in the first half of this year,” ASE chief operating officer Tien Wu (吳田玉) told an
RSS