(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-02-03 21:25

The country had also mobilized all available railway containers to move power coal and ease electricity constraints that have hit many areas. The containers only other use should be to move relief materials, Xinhua learned on Saturday from the Ministry of Railways.

The latest ministry figures revealed that more than 42,200 containers were loaded with power coal on Friday, up 12,000 from the previous day, a new record.

The railway line between Datong in the coal-producing province of Shanxi and Qinhuangdao, a port city in Hebei Province, which is a dedicated coal transport route, set a new daily freight record of one million tons.

Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming on Saturday called on local agencies to ensure market supply during the Spring Festival season, adding the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) was endeavoring to increase the market supply of vegetables, fruit and meat in snow-strangled provinces.

The MOC, the Ministry of Railway and the Ministry of Communications also held a supply and sale coordination meeting in the southern Hainan Province. It was decided that 158,300 tons of vegetables and fruit will be provinded to the snow-stricken Anhui, Jiangxi, Henan, Hubei, Hunan and Guizhou provinces before February 15.

The country has so far released more than 17,000 tons of pork from its reserves to meet demand in some of the hardest-hit big cities and Guizhou Province.

The General Administration of Customs of China (GACC) ordered its local customs to streamline the procedures for importing snow relief materials and energy products, including crude oil, coal and oil products.

Zhanjiang Customs, a key port in southern China, reduced the crude oil declaration process from three days to half a day.

Goldman Sachs chief economist for Asia, Liang Hong, said the damages brought by the snow would not impede the long-term Chinese economic growth, adding short-term production losses could be offset by a rise in grain production due to the wetter conditions.

However, Liang said the country needed to put more funds into the infrastructure sector, including railways, highways, airports, electricity grid and power plants.

As for the impact to the textile industry, Zhao Qiuyan, a senior analyst with the China Trade Remedy Information website under the MOC, told Xinhua on Sunday, "The impact of snow havoc on textile and apparel exports was limited as more of these products are consumed domestically".

Zhao added with the price increase in food and other daily necessities, the average textile products prices were stable or on the decline, giving them much room to increase sales domestically.

Official statistics revealed that 66.8 percent of the products were sold on the domestic market at the beginning of 2000, while this figure had increased to 75.04 percent by the end of November.

Analysts from China Lianhe Securities held most iron and steel companies would normally have a material reserve that could at least support one month's production and large iron and steel manufacturers had their own electricity stations, so the blizzard didn't affect their daily operation too heavily.

China Merchants Securities analysts believed fire-powered plants and electricity grid companies had suffered some losses from the snowstorm, while those hydropower plants gained more profits against the background of recent electricity shortages.

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