Power, coal supply resume as China keeps prices stable

BEIJING—Power supply and coal reserves continued to resume in China on Monday, while the government has been exerting efforts to maintain price stability after a worst-in-decades snow snarl.
A total of 22.12 million households, or 93.1 percent of those deprived of power during the snow storm, had regained access to electricity by Monday, said the Disaster Relief and Emergency Command Center under the State Council on Monday night. Reserves of coal for power generation increased 800,000 tons to 23.1 million tons on Sunday, equaling 12 days’ supply for the country’s power plants, said the command center.
It said in a statement that government departments had beefed up coal transportation as coal shipments from North China’s four major ports hit a record high of 1.42 million tons on Sunday.
Meanwhile, household necessities prices in China stayed stable during the Spring Festival, the Chinese Lunar New Year, according to the Ministry of Commerce Tuesday.
The average wholesale price of vegetables on February 10 declined to 3.78 yuan per kilogram (52 US cents), down 0.3 percent from the previous day and 2.8 percent from February 6, the New Year’s eve, according to ministry statistics.
Beef and lamb prices fell 0.1 percent from the previous day. The retail price of eggs fell 0.1 percent during the period while rice and peanut oil rose 0.2 percent. “Snow and ice has caused heavy losses to agriculture, especially vegetable production, in some regions,” it said.
The command center required local governments to expand the planting area of vegetables in the south for supplying the north and increase vegetable production in green houses.
Transport departments have rushed food to snow-hit regions to ensure supply and keep prices stable during the ongoing holiday week to celebrate the Spring Festival, the most important traditional festival in China.
From Jan. 25 to Sunday, railways shipped 113,000 cars of food like grains, vegetables and fruits to disaster-hit regions, said the command center.
China’s transport systems are only just creaking back to life after freak cold and ice storms hit swathes of the country since mid-January, causing billions of dollars in damage and killing at least 80 people. A total of 340,000 armed policemen had been dispatched to help disaster relief work across the country by 5 p.m. Monday, while 6.56 million stranded passengers and disaster-hit residents had been rescued by Monday, said the command center.—Xinhua