China’s energy firms are reducing gas supplies to industry to avoid having to cut off households during winter, but risking more factory shutdowns, dampening production and raising costs as shortages may worsen.
PetroChina (中石油), the country’s leading gas supplier, said yesterday it would make a second cut of 3 million cubic meters in the daily amount it delivers to industrial users in northern China, reducing their volumes by another 10 percent.
PetroChina has also cut 3 million cubic meters per day, or 8 percent, from supplies to firms in the Yangtze River delta and the provinces of Hunan and Hubei, as well as trimming flows to industries in the southwest and northwest, the main gas producing regions.
As demand peaks in December and January, gas shortages are expected to reach 8 million cubic meters daily in north China and between 5 million and 6 million cubic meters per day in the south, the China Petroleum Daily, an in-house newspaper of CNPC, PetroChina’s parent, said yesterday.
In southwestern Chongqing, taxis lined up for compressed natural gas as a sudden drop in temperatures slowed pipeline flows, lengthening refueling time. Many were reluctant to shift to gasoline, which costs three times as much.
Gas supplies for taxis in Wuhan in Hubei province were halted from Nov. 16, forcing the local government to dole out subsidies to taxi drivers who switched to expensive gasoline.
Many industrial firms in Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang Province, were shut because of gas shortages, while several hundred buses in Zhengzhou, in central Henan Province, faced being grounded amid gas supply tightness.
Real estate agent and property developer JSL Construction & Development Co (愛山林) led the average compensation rankings among companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) last year, while contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) finished 14th. JSL Construction paid its employees total average compensation of NT$4.78 million (US$159,701), down 13.5 percent from a year earlier, but still ahead of the most profitable listed tech giants, including TSMC, TWSE data showed. Last year, the average compensation (which includes salary, overtime, bonuses and allowances) paid by TSMC rose 21.6 percent to reach about NT$3.33 million, lifting its ranking by 10 notches
Popular vape brands such as Geek Bar might get more expensive in the US — if you can find them at all. Shipments of vapes from China to the US ground to a near halt last month from a year ago, official data showed, hit by US President Donald Trump’s tariffs and a crackdown on unauthorized e-cigarettes in the world’s biggest market for smoking alternatives. That includes Geek Bar, a brand of flavored vapes that is not authorized to sell in the US, but which had been widely available due to porous import controls. One retailer, who asked not to be named, because
SEASONAL WEAKNESS: The combined revenue of the top 10 foundries fell 5.4%, but rush orders and China’s subsidies partially offset slowing demand Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) further solidified its dominance in the global wafer foundry business in the first quarter of this year, remaining far ahead of its closest rival, Samsung Electronics Co, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. TSMC posted US$25.52 billion in sales in the January-to-March period, down 5 percent from the previous quarter, but its market share rose from 67.1 percent the previous quarter to 67.6 percent, TrendForce said in a report. While smartphone-related wafer shipments declined in the first quarter due to seasonal factors, solid demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) devices and urgent TV-related orders
MINERAL DIPLOMACY: The Chinese commerce ministry said it approved applications for the export of rare earths in a move that could help ease US-China trade tensions Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng (何立峰) is today to meet a US delegation for talks in the UK, Beijing announced on Saturday amid a fragile truce in the trade dispute between the two powers. He is to visit the UK from yesterday to Friday at the invitation of the British government, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. He and US representatives are to cochair the first meeting of the US-China economic and trade consultation mechanism, it said. US President Donald Trump on Friday announced that a new round of trade talks with China would start in London beginning today,
RSS