Several cities in the central Chinese province of Henan are facing a winter heating supply crunch, with thermal power suppliers in the city of Jiaozuo under pressure to ensure supplies.
Heating boilers at JiaoZuo WanFang Aluminum Manufacturing , one of the major suppliers in the city, have broken down, leaving some areas in urgent need of more heat supply, state media reported on Sunday.
The supplier is scrambling to fix the malfunction and expects to resume supply on Dec 26, state media reported, without specifying the number of boilers that have broken down.
JiaoZuo WanFang Aluminum did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment from Reuters.
The city will suspend heat supply for most businesses except essential service providers such as hospitals and senior centres to prioritise residential heat usage. However, some residential compounds will still be affected during the device maintenance period, the media reports added.
Two other cities in Henan – Puyang and Pingdingshan – have already suspended heat supply to government departments and administrative institutions to prioritise residential usage, the local governments said, citing extremely cold weather.
The weather forecast shows temperatures in the three cities hitting sub-zero on Sunday. Temperatures in several other areas in Henan would plunge to a low of minus 15 degrees Celsius over the weekend, the central province’s weather authority said on Saturday.
Warm air is expected to flow from the country’s north to south lifting temperatures from the weekend.
As of 2pm local time on Sunday, temperatures in many areas in central and eastern China had rebounded somewhat, with temperatures in some areas rising by more than 10 degrees Celsius, China’s weather authority said.