Recently Yahoo News on-line reported the following:
Yangtze shrinks as China's drought disrupts industry
ASSOCIATED PRESS
MARK SCHIEFELBEIN
Fri, August 19, 2022 at 1:40 AM
CHONGQING, China (AP) — Ships crept down the middle of the Yangtze on Friday after China's driest summer in six
decades left one of the mightiest rivers barely half its normal width and set
off a scramble to contain the damage to a weak economy in a politically
sensitive year.
Factories in Sichuan province and the adjacent metropolis of Chongqing in the southwest were ordered to shut down after reservoirs that supply hydropower fell to half their normal levels and demand for air conditioning surged in scorching temperatures.
River ferries in Chongqing that usually are packed with sightseers were empty and tied to piers beside mudflats that stretched as much as 50 meters (50 yards) from the normal shoreline to the depleted river's edge. Smaller ships sailed down the middle of the Yangtze, one of China's biggest trade channels, but no large cargo ships could be seen.
Normally bustling streets were empty after temperatures hit 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) in Chongqing on Thursday. State media said that was the hottest in China outside the desert region of Xinjiang in the northwest since official records began in 1961.
The disruption adds to challenges for the ruling Communist Party, which is trying to shore up sagging economic growth before a meeting in October or November when President Xi Jinping is expected to try to award himself a third five-year term as leader.
The drought’s impact in Sichuan is unusually severe because the province gets 80% of its power from hydroelectric dams.
Thousands of factories that make processor chips, solar panels and auto components in Sichuan and Chongqing shut down this week for at least six days.
Some announced there was no disruption in supplies to customers, but the Shanghai city government said in a letter released Thursday that Tesla Ltd. and a major Chinese automaker were forced to suspend production.
The city government of Chengdu, the Sichuan provincial
capital, told households to conserve power by setting air conditioning no lower
than 27 C (80 F). Another city, Dazhou, earlier announced rolling three-hour
daily power outages for neighborhoods.
The Yangtze basin, covering parts of 19 provinces, produces 45% of China’s economic output, according to the World Bank.
Low water levels in rivers also
forced halts to cargo shipments.
A canal that
connects Wuhan on the Yangtze with the city of Anqing to the northeast in Anhui
was closed because it was too shallow for vessels to move safely, the Shanghai
news outlet The Paper reported.
The national impact of shutdowns is limited because Sichuan
accounts for only 4% of industrial production, while other provinces use more
coal-fired power, which hasn’t been disrupted.
The government says China's two main state-owned power companies, State Grid Ltd. and Southern Grid Ltd., are moving power from 15 other provinces to Sichuan.
China suffered
similar disruptions last year when a dry summer caused hydropower shortages and
shut down factories in Guangdong province in the southeast, a global manufacturing
center. Other regions suffered blackouts due to coal shortages and mandatory
power cuts to meet official energy efficiency targets.
This year is unlikely to be so severe, according to Larry Hu of Macquarie Group.
“If the power rationing in Sichuan only lasts a few weeks, the impact on the industrial production at the national level should be very limited," Hu said in a report.
Xuguang Electronics Co. in Chengdu said the six-day shutdown would reduce its output by 48,000 electronic circuits. The company said it expected to take a 5 million yuan ($600,000) hit to its annual profit.
BOE Technology Group Co., which makes electronic displays, said a Sichuan subsidiary would suspend production. BOE promised in a statement issued through the Shenzhen Stock Exchange to “fully guarantee delivery of customers’ products.”
News reports said producers in Sichuan of solar panels and lithium for electric cars also shut down, but no companies announced disruptions in supplies.
Translation
中國重慶（美聯社）- 在周五有船隻在長江中部遲緩地行駛, 中國六十年來最乾旱的夏季，令最強大河流之一的長江的寬度变成僅為正常寬度的一半,
並在政治敏感的一年中, 引發一場爭取制止對已疲軟的經濟的破壞。
由於供應水力發電的水庫降至正常水平的一半，並且因酷熱的天氣中對空調的需求激增，四川省和西南相鄰的重慶市的工廠被勒令關閉。
重慶通常擠滿觀光客的內河渡輪空無一人，被綁在泥灘旁的碼頭上，泥灘從正常海岸線延伸至枯竭的河流邊緣長達 50 米（50 碼）。較小的船隻在中國最大的貿易通道之一長江中部航行，但看不到有大型貨船。
週四，重慶氣溫達到攝氏 45 度（華氏 113 度）後，往常熙熙攘攘的街道上空無一人。官方媒體稱，這是自1961年有官方記錄以來，中國除西北新疆沙漠地區以外的最熱天氣。
正在為裸露的河床拍照的 22 歲的陳浩峰說: “沒有空調，我們無法度過這個夏天”;
“沒有什麼能讓我們降溫。”
這種干擾給執政的共產黨增加了挑戰，該黨正試圖在 10 月或 11 月的會議之前支撐疲軟的經濟增長，屆時預計習近平主席將試圖授予自己第三個五年的領導人任期。
這個世界第二大經濟體在 2022 年上半年僅比去年同期增長 2.5%，不到官方目標 5.5% 的一半。
四川乾旱的影響異常嚴重，因為該省 80% 的電力來自水力發電大壩。
本週，四川和重慶數千家生產處理器芯片、太陽能電池板和汽車零部件的工廠關閉了至少六天。
有人宣稱對客戶的供應沒有中斷，但上海市政府在周四發布的一封信中表示，特斯拉有限公司和一家中國主要汽車製造商被迫停產。
四川省會成都市政府告訴家庭通過將空調設置為不低於 27 攝氏度（80 華氏度）來節省電力。另一個城市達州早些時候宣布，社區每天輪流停電三小時。
根據世界銀行的數據，長江流域覆蓋 19 個省的部分地區，佔中國經濟出產的 45%。
河流的低水位也迫使貨物運輸停止。
上海新聞媒體《澎湃新聞》報導，一條連接長江武漢和安徽省東北部安慶市的運河因水深太淺，船隻無法安全行駛而被關閉。
停工對全國的影響是有限的，因為四川僅佔工業生產的
4%，而其他省份則使用更多的燃煤發電，且並未有中斷。
政府表示，中國兩大國有電力公司,國家電網有限公司和南方電網有限公司正在將電力從其他 15 個省份轉移到四川。
據官方新華社報導，中共七人常委委員韓正在周三訪問國家電網期間承諾提供官方支持，以確保電力供應。
去年，中國遭受了類似的干擾，夏季乾燥導致水電短缺，並關閉了位於中國東南部的廣東省, 一個全球製造中心的工廠。其他地區因煤炭短缺, 和為實現官方能源效率目標而遭受強制停電。
Macquarie Group 的 Larry Hu 表示，今年不太可能如此嚴重。
Hu 在一份報告中說: “如果四川的限電只持續幾週，對全國工業生產的影響應該是非常有限的” 。
成都旭光電子有限公司表示，為期六天的停產將減少共48,000個電子電路的產量。該公司表示，預計其年度利潤將受到打擊 達500 萬元人民幣（60 萬美元)。
生產電子顯示器的BOE科技集團有限公司表示，四川的一家子公司將停產。BOE在通過深圳證券交易所發布的聲明中承諾
“全力保障交付客戶的產品” 。
新聞報導稱，四川的太陽能電池板和電動汽車鋰生產商也關閉了，但沒有公司宣布產品供應被打亂。
So, China's driest summer in six
decades left one of the mightiest rivers Yangtze barely half its normal width.
Factories in Sichuan province and the adjacent metropolis
of Chongqing in the southwest were ordered to shut down after reservoirs that
supply hydropower fell to half their normal levels. Could this drought be one
of the impacts of global warming?
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