The energy crisis in China triggers global turmoil as it affects electronics manufacturing worldwide. Even such behemoths as Tesla and Apple are suffering from shortages. 

Will the situation impact Ukraine? Ukrainian sinologists discussed that on MIM-TV. 

Oleksii Koval, board member of the Ukrainian Association of Sinologists, columnist of Dzerkalo Tyzhnya (Mirror of the Week) publication:

There are several reasons for electricity shortages in the country that coincided. First of all, it is managed from the center. Cold and draught happened simultaneously and added up to the pressure. A hydro generation went down and thus overloaded nuclear generation. Regions with a high concentration of manufacturing facilities were overconsuming as they wanted to finish their assignments before the long festive period. 

Yevhen Glembotdsky, head of networks equipment and security systems division at the DC Link Group.

“Every company seems to suffer from the situation whether it is logistics, lack of spare part, or higher prices. Electricity shortages triggered deficits all over the world. Ukraine will feel the scarcities in a couple of months. It is likely to make logistics longer, prices higher, and goods assortment poorer. Most of our colleagues in Ukraine are lucky to have some inventories in stock yet.”

Oleksii Kalynovskii, corporate notebooks and desktops manager for the Acer.

“China, the largest coal consumer has only a two-week reserve of coal. They cannot import from Australia, the largest coal importer because of sanctions. It is not only China that suffers from energy shortages. On the other hand, the Chinese have adopted an ambitious program of reducing CO emissions to zero by 2060. So, everyone seems to invest in green energy but it is not enough. Besides, energy prices for private consumers are fixed, whereas coal prices are growing. Thus, they are suffering from the problem typical for regulated economies. Europe is also facing problems as the gas prices soared. There are no winners so far. Many companies are relocating their manufacturing sites but it takes time. Trends-wise, energy-consuming industries will suffer. No wonder Netflix, for example, offers quicker and better returns than mining. When all different influences coincided, it turned out that traditional industries lack funding. The world will hardly be using coal in future but green energy is not efficient yet.”

Dmytro Romanenko, Ukraine and CIS business development manager for Kinston:

“Some media outlets hint that the Chinese government tries to reduce smog in Beijing for winter Olympics. Who is the winner? Nobody. The economy has become global nowadays, so shortages in China, the world’s manufacturing shop other countries will also be affected. Those who have a lot of inventories in stock or can launch local manufacturing in 3 – 5 years will have some advantages.”

Yuri Korotky, Ukrainian business development manager for Patriot memory.

«All seem to lose under circumstances. On the other hand, Ukraine won’t suffer a lot. Our economy is going through a kind of a down point and it can compensate for the shortages of Chinese supplies. Although the semiconductors business has global supply chains I don’t think we are facing some serious crisis in a short-term perspective.”