it seems we haven’t had a China Covid update lately, so here’s the latest…
COVID-19 quarantine center under construction in Jilin City – People’s Daily Online – A COVID-19 quarantine center in Jilin started construction on March 13. Covering an area of about 430,000 square meters, the project is designed with 6,000 quarantine rooms.Northeast China’s Jilin Province reported 895 locally transmitted COVID-19 cases, and 131 asymptomatic carriers on Sunday, the provincial health commission said on Monday. Of the newly confirmed infections, 453 were reported in the city of Jilin.
pictures show a lot of equipment on the site….it wouldn’t surprise me if it were ready to use by April…
China’s Covid-19 Surge Shuts Down Plants in Manufacturing Hubs Shenzhen and Changchun – WSJ – A surge in Covid-19 cases led Chinese manufacturing hubs Shenzhen and Changchun to lock down in recent days, halting production at many electronics and auto factories in the latest threat to the world’s battered supply chain. A number of manufacturers including Foxconn Technology Group, a major assembler of Apple Inc.’s iPhones, said they were halting operations in Shenzhen in compliance with the local government’s policy. The government placed the city into lockdown for at least a week and said everyone in the city would have to undergo three rounds of testing after 86 new cases of domestic Covid-19 infections were detected Sunday. While China’s case numbers are tiny by global standards, the country has adopted a zero-Covid policy that aims at nipping all outbreaks in the bud through testing and lockdowns. Over the past two years, the world’s second-biggest economy has repeatedly locked down entire cities or sections of them, ordering factories to suspend operations as people stay home. Such suspensions have typically lasted for several weeks as authorities worked to bring down the number of infections, causing production snags in the semiconductor, automobile and other industries. Officials didn’t say when the lockdowns would end—in Shenzhen, officials said they would decide whether the lockdown needs to be extended after a week based on the state of the pandemic then. In recent days, daily Covid-19 infection numbers in China have hit levels not seen since early 2020.
China’s Covid-19 curbs hit Toyota, Volkswagen and Apple supplier Foxconn (REUTERS) – China’s efforts to curb its largest Covid-19 outbreak in two years have forced companies from Apple supplier Foxconn to automakers Toyota and Volkswagen to suspend some operations, raising concerns over supply chain disruptions. Multiple Chinese provinces and cities have tightened restrictions in line with Beijing’s zero-tolerance goal of suppressing the coronavirus as quickly as possible, among them the southern Chinese tech hub of Shenzhen. Shenzhen, China’s Silicon Valley, is carrying out mass testing after dozens of new local cases were recorded. Officials have suspended public transport and urged people to work at home this week as much as possible. White House press Secretary Jen Psaki said on Monday (March 14) that the Biden Administration was monitoring the lockdown of the tech hub “incredibly closely”. “What we’re looking at is, of course… the impact on some of these ports around the impacted areas of China,” she said in a Monday afternoon briefing. China has reported more local symptomatic Covid-19 cases so far this year than it recorded in all of 2021. Foxconn, formally known as Hon Hai Precision Industry, said its Shenzhen operations would be suspended until further notice, adding that it would deploy backup plants to reduce disruption. Taiwan companies that said they had suspended Shenzhen operations included chip substrate and printed circuit board maker Unimicron Technology, which also supplies to Apple and Intel, and flexible printed circuit board maker Sunflex Technology.
Ron (RC) Weakley (A.K.A., Darryl For A While At EV) says:
Stocks rose for a second day on Wednesday, with the S&P 500 jumping more than 2 percent after the Federal Reserve chair Jerome H. Powell soothed investors’ concerns about the economy even as the central bank embarked on a campaign to raise interest rates.
The Fed on Wednesday lifted its key interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point, and projected six more increases this year as it looks to combat inflation.
Investors initially reacted to the news by selling off stocks, and the S&P 500 briefly erased early gains and fell into negative territory. But stocks rebounded and the index ended the day with a gain of 2.2 percent. Adding to an increase of 2.1 percent on Tuesday, the rally made for the best two days for the S&P 500 since April 2020.
The rebound came after Mr. Powell said at a news conference that the economy is strong, calling its recent growth “solid,” and that the labor market is “extremely tight.” …
The Fed’s plan to raise rates this year comes with inflation at the highest level in 40 years. The Consumer Price Index rose 7.9 percent through February, with higher prices for gas, food and rent contributing to the increase.
Higher rates can hinder the stock market’s performance because they make owning bonds more attractive and make borrowing more expensive for consumers and companies. But the Fed’s decision to try to control the runaway price gains is also a welcome step to many on Wall Street who are worried about the economic damage inflation can cause as it erodes consumer sentiment and spending.
“High inflation takes a toll on everyone, but really, especially, on people who use most of their income to buy essentials like food, housing and transportation,” Mr. Powell said. …
i had been wondering why Hong Kong’s death rate was so high; maybe this is it:
Fear over ‘new bug strain’ Bangkok Post
Health experts have sounded the alarm after the discovery of a new mutation of the Omicron coronavirus variant in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong has been hit by its worst Covid-19 wave to date, recording the world’s highest coronavirus death rate.
Dr Chalermchai Boonyaleephan, deputy chairman of a Senate committee on public health, posted on Blockdit that Omicron has mutated into three subvariants (BA.1, BA.2, and BA.3).
He wrote that the number of infections and deaths in Hong Kong has reached a record high which has coincided with the emergence of the BA.2.2 subvariant.
He said that high numbers of cases make mutation more likely as the chances of deviation during the virus’ replication are multiplied.
There are currently about 5,000 infections and 30 deaths per million people in Hong Kong each week. That figure dwarfs Thailand’s 315 cases and 0.85 deaths, he posted.
Despite the larger number of cases, the mortality rate is also higher for those infected with BA.2.2, as apparently evidenced by the current situation in Hong Kong, he wrote.
Miles below ground, where pressures are intense and temperatures far exceed the boiling point, dense layers of super-hot rocks offer the promise of a natural, inexhaustible supply of clean energy.
Environmentalists have long dreamed of a way to reach those depths to tap the potential geothermal energy in those rocks, but the technological and financial barriers have been too great.
Now, officials at an MIT spinoff say they’ve figured out how to drill as deep as 12 miles into the Earth’s crust, using a special laser that they say is powerful enough to blast through granite and basalt like a knife through soft butter.
In the coming years, Quaise Energy, named for a section of Nantucket, plans to dig some of the deepest boreholes in history to reach rocks that can exceed temperatures of 1,000 degrees and surface a kind of heavy steam that has the potential to provide a nearly unlimited supply of clean energy anywhere in the world. By the end of the decade, they plan to capture the steam and use it to run turbines at power plants.
“By drilling deeper, hotter, and faster than ever before possible, Quaise aspires to provide abundant and reliable clean energy for all humanity,” said CarlosAraque, a former MIT student and employee, whose new company has raised $63 million to prove its technology. “This could provide a path to energy independence for every nation and enable a rapid transition off fossil fuels.”
Like nuclear fusion, a perennially elusive effort to harness the energy that powers stars, deep geothermal wells have long been viewed as a panacea for those hoping to displace our dependence on oil and gas with the energy from super-hot rocks. …
(Russians really, really hate ‘Nazis’ – due to horrific WW2 experiences. It’s no doubt justified. But this can be used to energize the citizenry, and is. What’s missing from this NYT article is that Ukrainians don’t care much for Russians either, due to pre-WW2 experiences with Joseph Stalin that led to millions of deaths from starvation in Ukraine. Significant numbers of Ukrainians did ally with Germany during that era.)
Ukraine’s government is “openly neo-Nazi” and “pro-Nazi,” controlled by “little Nazis,” President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia says.
American officials led by President Biden are responsible for the “Nazification” of Ukraine, one of Russia’s top lawmakers says, and should be tried before a court. In fact, another lawmaker says, it is time to create a “modern analogy to the Nuremberg Tribunal” as Russia prepares to “denazify” Ukraine.
In case the message was not clear, the Kremlin’s marquee weekly news show aired black-and-white footage on Sunday of German Nazis being hanged on what is now central Kyiv’s Independence Square. The men drop, dangling from a long beam, and the crowd cheers. …
… Mr. Putin only began to apply the word regularly to the country’s present-day government in recent months, though he has long referred to Ukraine’s pro-Western revolution of 2014 as a fascist coup.
The “Nazi” slur’s sudden emergence shows how Mr. Putin is trying to use stereotypes, distorted reality and his country’s lingering World War II trauma to justify his invasion of Ukraine. The Kremlin is casting the war as a continuation of Russia’s fight against evil in what is known in the country as the Great Patriotic War, apparently counting on lingering Russian pride in the victory over Nazi Germany to carry over into support for Mr. Putin’s attack. …
it seems we haven’t had a China Covid update lately, so here’s the latest…
pictures show a lot of equipment on the site….it wouldn’t surprise me if it were ready to use by April…
btw, there goes global supply chain again:
rjs,
The great thing about global supply chains is that they provide a whole world of ways to screw things up.
yep. when we get our raw materials from Russia and our parts from China, what could go wrong?
Gray skies gonna clear up…
Stocks rally after the Fed’s rate increase, for a second day of big gains
NY Times – March 16
FWIW, the Dobbs Index is up 2% today from just two days ago.
However, it’s still down 9.4% from where it was at the end of 2021.
i had been wondering why Hong Kong’s death rate was so high; maybe this is it:
In an effort to rid the world of fossil fuels, an MIT spinoff plans to dig the deepest holes on Earth
Boston Globe – March 18
Why Vladimir Putin Invokes Nazis to Justify His Invasion of Ukraine
NY Times – March 17
(Russians really, really hate ‘Nazis’ – due to horrific WW2 experiences. It’s no doubt justified. But this can be used to energize the citizenry, and is. What’s missing from this NYT article is that Ukrainians don’t care much for Russians either, due to pre-WW2 experiences with Joseph Stalin that led to millions of deaths from starvation in Ukraine. Significant numbers of Ukrainians did ally with Germany during that era.)