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China and Australia are tense, boycotting Australian barley, red wine, meat, etc., and stopped buying Australian coal mines in the fourth quarter. However, this measure has affected many small and medium enterprises and the common people of the country. To save coal, recently, Zhejiang, Hunan and elsewhere have implemented energy reduction measures, requiring street lights to be turned off at night and heated to below 3 degrees Celsius. This has led to a large number of small businesses in Yiwu, rushing to ship during the Christmas season. In the small town, many factories were forced to close. Academics believe that the biggest weapon in Australia’s hands is to stop supplying iron ore. Once freed, China will have unimaginable consequences.
According to a report by Radio Free Asia, the Hunan Provincial Development and Reform Commission recently issued the “Emergency Notice on Starting the Orderly Use of Electricity for Peak Winter in the Province in 2020”, stating that the maximum load of the province has reached 30.93 million kilowatts, an increase of 14.1% during the same period. Breaking the all-time winter record, this situation is expected to continue until around the Spring Festival next year. The “Notice” stipulates the period of daily energy consumption, and will shut down the lighting of the urban landscape of the province, turn off the street lights and shut off the power supply to the party and government offices on weekends . However, the authorities did not specify the reasons for the electricity rationing.
▲ Chinese netizens said that many provinces have announced relevant energy-saving measures. (Source: Weibo)
In addition to power rationing, Zhejiang also announced that due to the recent dual control of energy saving and carbon reduction work is facing a serious situation, and said that in response to green development, as of now, all units and public areas must be below 3 degrees Celsius to turn on heating equipment. Starting on the 15th, Jiangxi also announced the start of orderly power consumption. Under the power restriction measures of various provinces, if it is found that designated power rationing industries do not use electricity in accordance with regulations, they will be cut off. According to netizens on Weibo, there are currently no restrictions in Shanghai.
Electricity reduction measures affect small businesses and people’s livelihoods
Because it coincides with the peak season for small and medium-sized enterprises in various places, such as the world’s largest production of Christmas and New Year decorations in Yiwu, Zhejiang province, some netizens also posted that they received a message from the head of Yiwu of that the factory could not ship due to power outage and blackout in Yiwu. And he complained about whether the purpose of the power outage is to save energy or stop production and stop heating.
“Radio Free Asia” quoted the person in charge of Yiwu Trading Company as saying that in addition to causing losses to businesses, the power outage measures also affected the lives of residents in the dead of winter. They also noted that the restriction of Australian coal mines led to insufficient power generation at power plants and complained that top management did not know what to think. “On the one hand, there are a large number of Australian coal freighters docked at the port that cannot go through customs. On the other hand, many areas are coal starved and require power outages.
Australian coal is of good quality and its power generation efficiency far exceeds Chinese coal.
After China stopped buying coal from Australia, it also agreed with Indonesia in late November to buy nearly $ 1.5 billion worth of Indonesian thermal coal next year in an attempt to make up for Australia’s deficit. The report quoted the person in charge of a company surnamed Jiang as saying that this is not the peak season for electricity consumption, not to mention that Australian coal is more efficient for power generation. If coal from Indonesia is used, the power generation will be much less.
The main source of imported Chinese coal mines is Australia. The report quoted Mr. Song, a retired academic from the Beijing Iron and Steel Research Institute, as saying that demand from Chinese companies for primary coking coal and power-generating coal from Australia and Canada is very great. Lack of power.
If Australia counters iron ore, China’s steel industry will shut down immediately
Academics believe that Australia’s best weapon against China is iron ore. Now China imports more than 1 billion tons of iron ore each year, mainly from Brazil, Australia and South Africa. As long as Brazil and Australia join forces, all Chinese steel companies will do so immediately. The suspension of production will affect metal products such as airplanes, cars, household appliances, etc. Therefore, restricting coal imports is very stupid.
Furthermore, according to the person in charge of a foreign trade factory in Yiwu, the entire foreign trade industry is now concerned about logistics. Goods in some factories have been piled up everywhere and cannot be shipped. Shipping, railways and express delivery face delays and congestion is very severe.
Iron ore price is skyrocketing, China Iron and Steel Association urgently consults with Australian factories
The Law Canton also reported that Australian Senator and Federal Resources Minister Kanavan has publicly called for punitive taxes to be imposed on iron ore resources to counter China. In the absence of substitutes, as long as the Australian government increases the tax rate by 1% It can increase revenue by US $ 800 million each year, which may offset the industries that Australia suffers from China’s trade sanctions. Although Australia has not yet embarked on this strategy, international iron ore prices have soared recently. As of the 14th, the price of iron ore futures on the Dalian Commodity Exchange of China soared more than RMB 1,000 per ton, setting a record for the past 7 years. To this end, the director of the China Iron and Steel Industry Association and Australia’s two main iron ore leaders also launched an urgent dialogue, hoping to establish a new pricing mechanism.
(This article is reproduced with permission from China Central Radio; first image source: Flickr / Paul Balfe CC BY 2.0)
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