Who Turned Out the Lights in China?

Forbes ^ | 05/29/11 | Gordon Chang

[TigerLikesRooster]

Who Turned Out the Lights in China?

Last Monday, the State Grid Corp. of China predicted this summer’s power shortage—a shortfall larger than the total installed capacity of Argentina—will be the worst ever, even more serious than the one in 2004.

We have not even reached the peak season, and already power is in short supply. In Zhejiang province, a center of small industry, factories are getting power only three days a week, and limits have been imposed since the end of February. There is also power rationing for Zhejiang homes and office buildings.

The situation in the Pearl River Delta, sometimes called the world’s factory floor, is only slightly better. In Shenzhen, the booming city across the border from Hong Kong, manufacturers receive electricity four days a week. Nearby Dongguan factories are unusually fortunate: they get juice five days out of seven.

This year the coastal region will be hit hardest, but there will be shortages in 26 of the 31 provinces and provincial-level cities in the People’s Republic. The most affected areas will be the provincial-level cities of Beijing, Shanghai, and Tianjin plus Hebei, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang provinces.

[Republic of Texas]

I guess they could build more power plants, but why would they? There is no incentive. No profit. I’d laugh, but the US will be there soon.

[Jonty30]

Sounds like I’ll have to settle on the Galaxy Tab I have on pre-order than get an Ipad.

[TigerLikesRooster]

P!

[clearcarbon]

I guess this summer we can travel to
China to see our green Futureworld.

[Lancey Howard]

[PA Engineer]

I guess they could build more power plants, but why would they? There is no incentive. No profit. I’d laugh, but the US will be there soon.

The bottleneck is coal. Their nukes will not come online in time.

[TigersEye]

0bama envies their infrastructure.

[MontaniSemperLiberi]

Much of the increased demand for oil these days comes from Chinese manufacturers who buy diesel to run their generators on days the power goes out.

[B4Ranch]

I’ll bet that they have been scoping out what Rossi is doing. What are the environmentalists going to whine about when we stop using oil and coal?

[Wonder Warthog]

"I’ll bet that they have been scoping out what Rossi is doing."

No doubt about that!

"What are the environmentalists going to whine about when we stop using oil and coal?"

Oh, I'm sure they will find "something".......very fertile imaginations they have.....

[Republic of Texas]

They have no profit incentive to build either.

[PA Engineer]

They have no profit incentive to build either.

Yep. I was there before the "bust" and I believe they were bringing online something like 1+ coal plants per day. It was an unbelievable number. Times were good, but my Friends there had serious concerns about the stability of the growth. Now they have thrown a wrench into an already difficult situation with price controls.

China shares plenty of blame with the artificial pegging of the Yuan to the Dollar. Helicopter Ben did the rest. I wonder if they will call this one the short lived "Communist Dynasty". Everything is pointing that way.

As a side note, there did not seem to be much coverage here of them dumping all of their treasuries. I guess that means some form of QE3 is on the way.