Carbon cuts leave Chinese factories in chaos

AN ABRUPT command from Beijing to follow through with ''iron-fisted'' energy and carbon emission cuts has thrown China's industrial heartland into chaos.

Steel factories across the country are slashing production - implying a rocky outlook for key Australian commodities such as iron ore - while smaller Chinese plants have been arbitrarily plunged into darkness.

''We had no water to flush the toilet, we couldn't use the fridge and of course production stopped,'' said an office manager at Wanxing wire mesh factory in Anping, Hebei province.

He said he had struggled through 10 days of randomly imposed blackouts - some as long as 22 hours - and the water supply and electrical appliances had just come back on. ''We often didn't hear the power cut notices, partly because we couldn't watch TV,'' he said.
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But Pan Jiahua, a climate change policy expert who directly advised the Politburo earlier this year, told The Age that this was not an efficient way to achieve the goal of energy efficiency.
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''It's crazy,'' he said, referring to the absence of any flexibility or adjustments for local conditions.