you are viewing a single comment's thread.

view the rest of the comments →

[–]magnora7[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

I don't think they can scale up production at the drop of a hat. That's the whole problem

And the news is from international observers, not the Chinese government

[–]Canbot 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

All the observers see is blackouts and state media explanations. They also saw people collapsing in the streets from a horrible new disease that turned out to be the flu.

There is no natural bottleneck to mining. You dig additional shafts, send in additional equipment and men. It is easily scaleable.

Buying coal from Australia is a strategy not a necessity.

[–]magnora7[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

It is easily scaleable.

Yeah in a matter of months or years, not weeks. That's the whole problem

[–]Canbot 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

So they have zero strategic coal reserves? Zero alternative energy reserves? No backup natural gas generators? No wood to burn in thier furnaces?

And instead of raising prices to lower demand they shut it off?

I smell shenanigans afoot.

[–]magnora7[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

No they have 14 days of coal reserves.

They have generators which are becoming much more widespread in use by factories who keep suffering from unannounced electricity outages.

But the industrial generator market is also now very expensive in China due to the high demand. The video in the OP talks about this, it's actually a very interesting and informational video, you should give it a watch.

They felt forced to cut off trade with Australia because Australia wanted to investigate the Wuhan origins of covid 19, which was a quick and rash decision seemingly made in haste. However this geopolitical decision is now affecting their economy more deeply than anticipated, the longer they sustain this stance. It's a complex situation.