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.
FALLING BEHIND: Samsung shares have declined more than 20 percent this year, as the world’s largest chipmaker struggles in key markets and plays catch-up to rival SK Hynix Samsung Electronics Co is laying off workers in Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand as part of a plan to reduce its global headcount by thousands of jobs, sources familiar with the situation said. The layoffs could affect about 10 percent of its workforces in those markets, although the numbers for each subsidiary might vary, said one of the sources, who asked not to be named because the matter is private. Job cuts are planned for other overseas subsidiaries and could reach 10 percent in certain markets, the source said. The South Korean company has about 147,000 in staff overseas, more than half
TECH PARTNERSHIP: The deal with Arizona-based Amkor would provide TSMC with advanced packing and test capacities, a requirement to serve US customers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is collaborating with Amkor Technology Inc to provide local advanced packaging and test capacities in Arizona to address customer requirements for geographical flexibility in chip manufacturing. As part of the agreement, TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, would contract turnkey advanced packaging and test services from Amkor at their planned facility in Peoria, Arizona, a joint statement released yesterday said. TSMC would leverage these services to support its customers, particularly those using TSMC’s advanced wafer fabrication facilities in Phoenix, Arizona, it said. The companies would jointly define the specific packaging technologies, such as TSMC’s Integrated
An Indian factory producing iPhone components resumed work yesterday after a fire that halted production — the third blaze to disrupt Apple Inc’s local supply chain since the start of last year. Local industrial behemoth Tata Group’s plant in Tamil Nadu, which was shut down by the unexplained fire on Saturday, is a key linchpin of Apple’s nascent supply chain in the country. A spokesperson for subsidiary Tata Electronics Pvt yesterday said that the company would restart work in “many areas of the facility today.” “We’ve been working diligently since Saturday to support our team and to identify the cause of the fire,”
China’s economic planning agency yesterday outlined details of measures aimed at boosting the economy, but refrained from major spending initiatives. The piecemeal nature of the plans announced yesterday appeared to disappoint investors who were hoping for bolder moves, and the Shanghai Composite Index gave up a 10 percent initial gain as markets reopened after a weeklong holiday to end 4.59 percent higher, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dived 9.41 percent. Chinese National Development and Reform Commission Chairman Zheng Shanjie (鄭珊潔) said the government would frontload 100 billion yuan (US$14.2 billion) in spending from the government’s budget for next year in addition
RSS