Textile heartland gets back to work

Shaoxing, heart of the nation's textile industry, has taken a series of measures to resume production after a two-week halt due to an outbreak of COVID-19 in Zhejiang province.

So far, a total of 62 manufacturing enterprises in Shangyu district, Shaoxing－a hard-hit city during the pandemic－had resumed work and production as of Wednesday, according to data released by the district's economic and information bureau.

Shangyu is one of the main dye production bases in China, with many leading dye enterprises in Shaoxing generating a combined 80 percent of the nation's annual production capacity.

"Our orders are fully booked until the end of March next year, with an increase of 10 percent year-on-year," said Long Shi'an, director of Changhe Fiber Factory under Changhe Fiber (Shaoxing) Co Ltd in Shangyu. The company is among the first batch of local enterprises to resume work and production, with work resuming on Thursday and full production capacity expected to be restored by the end of the month.

A total of 236 employees living in company dormitories were immediately readied to prepare for the resumption of work and production, said Long, adding that the factory is mulling more working shifts and workers to make up for the two-week production halt due to the outbreak.

"Certain areas attacked by the Delta variant in Zhejiang this time have long been manufacturing bases in the province, and the impact of the pandemic on industrial growth may surface gradually," Chen Guangsheng, deputy director of the Zhejiang's provincial leading group office for pandemic prevention and control, said at a news conference on Wednesday.

Chen said effective contagion prevention and control measures should be coordinated with economic and social development.

In Ningbo, the resumption rate of industrial enterprises in Zhenhai district had reached 98 percent as of Wednesday, according to the district's economic and information bureau.

Zhenhai Port in Ningbo, an important transport hub for coal and chemicals, also resumed cargo handling on Wednesday. Cargo throughput in Zhenhai Seaport Zone at Ningbo Zhoushan Port in 2021 has exceeded 55.02 million tons, setting a record, according to local port authorities.

Fang Xiaoying in Hangzhou contributed to this story.