Vietnam is giving permission to factories in its northern provinces, where Apple Inc suppliers and Samsung Electronics operate plants jointly, to increase hours of production as power shortages begin to ease.
Plants with urgent orders have been able to avoid any production shutdowns as rolling blackouts have swept across the country.
All manufacturers in industrial parks are now allowed to operate from midnight until 5pm daily, Dao Xuan Cuong said, who overseas industrial parks in Bac Giang province.
Factories last week were told to curtail production between 5pm and 7:45am.
“Plants should be able to run production lines normally in a couple of weeks,” he said.
“This applies to every province,” Cuong said. “However, each province can have a slightly different solution depending on its priorities.”
Searing summer temperatures and reduced water levels in hydropower reservoirs have strained Vietnam’s grid. Thousands of factories have been forced to curb power consumption.
Earlier last week, the power company Vietnam Electricity Group slashed northern power capacity by as much as 30 percent at times — or by as much as 10 percent of the region’s electricity usage — to prevent grid overloads and ensure the system’s safety.
However, available power capacity in northern Vietnam improved over the weekend after several malfunctioning coal-fired generators were repaired and some hydropower reservoirs saw water levels rise after light rain.
Water shortages in reservoirs might lessen further with more rain forecast, according to state media and the national weather agency.
Beginning today, the agency forecast a gradual easing of the heat wave that has gripped north Vietnam this month.
High heat in the nation’s central region is expected to persist for several more days.
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