China’s power crisis: in export showroom Yiwu, some businesses wonder if they’ll survive

Many factories in Chinese export hub Yiwu, Zhejiang province, have been forced to cut production because of power rationing

As factories close, China’s supply chains, barely recovered from the Covid-19 pandemic last year, are being challenged again

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Exporters in Yiwu, dubbed China’s manufacturing showroom, are feeling the effects of the country’s current power crisis. Illustration: Perry Tse

Published: 6:00am, 27 Oct 2021Updated: 11:35am, 12 Nov 2021

Usually full of bustling stalls showcasing everything from Christmas decorations to machine parts, China’s famed Yiwu International Trade Market is operating at a much slower pace today.

Escalators and air-conditioning have stopped working inside the sprawling 4-million-square-metre (43 million square feet) complex, and store owners, starved of business thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, snooze in their shops amid the stifling heat.

Yiwu, dubbed China’s manufacturing showroom, was hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic, with travel restrictions leaving foreign buyers unable to visit the trade-dependent city.

But now, it faces a new challenge: power rationing triggered by a crippling electricity crunch that has affected swathes of the world’s No 2 economy.

Not far from the market, in Yiwu’s industrial estates, factory owners fret about more disruptions to production amid the drone of generators, running around the clock to keep the machines running.

“It feels like people have no way of making a living,” said He Meiling, who owns a packaging factory in Yiwu that is only operating at half capacity due to power restrictions.

“The market is messed up, very messed up. Raw material prices have skyrocketed, workers’ wages keep increasing and rent is going up, like the price of everything else, but production is restricted and our earnings are shrinking.