The coronavirus pandemic has already affected the manufacturing and supplies of a number of goods. Shoppers across the globe are already facing a shortage of smartphones and other goods before the holiday season. This is mostly happening because of the power cuts in China to meet the official energy use targets. This forced a number of Chinese factories to shut down and also left a number of households in darkness.
Moreover, nearly 23 people in the northern city of Liaoyang had to be hospitalized with gas poisoning. The incident happened when the ventilation of a metal cast factory was shut after a power outage. However, no deaths have been reported. A number of factories had to be idled after they exceeded limits on energy use that was imposed by Beijing that helped to promote efficiency. As per an environmental group and economists, the manufacturers had used up this year’s energy quota faster than they had planned. This happened as the demand increased to a new level after recovering from the coronavirus pandemic.
The country also has a component supplier for Apple’s iPhones and the production in its factory had to be suspended as per the orders from the local authorities. This is one of the busiest seasons in China for the manufacturers and the recent disturbance in the manufacturing has reflected the struggle of the Communist Party while bringing a balance of the economic growth while also looking after pollutions and emissions of the climate changing gases.
Ting Lu, Jing Wang and Lisheng Wang, the Nomura economists in a report said that the enforcement of the energy consumption limits by Beijing can be beneficial in a long term. But the short-term economic costs could be substantial.
The manufacturers are already facing a shortage of processor chips and there are also disturbances in the shipping process. China is considered as one of the biggest emitters of industrial gases leading to climate change and also consumes more energy per unit of economic output.
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