Yes from what I've been told by my salesman a lot of the active ingredients are manufactured in china and that's the cause of some of this shortage on herbicides specifically glyphosate. Word is they've shut down some coal fired power plants to clean up a little before the Olympics to look good for the world. When that's over should be back to business as usual.
I don't think it has all that much to do with the Olympics.
China is boosting production of urea, a raw material for and a necessity for vehicle emissions reductions, amid a global shortage, but exports to countries like Australia, which is facing a severe shortage, could be limited due to tightening domestic supplies as well as surging transport costs, industry practitioners and insiders told the Global Times on Sunday.
Urea is widely used as nitrogen fertilizer in the agriculture industry, and it is the raw material for a wide range of chemical products such as AdBlue, or diesel exhaust fluid, which is used to reduce the nitrous oxide emissions of diesel engines under international standards.
"There is a serious shortage of urea in Australia. So far this month, we have exported more than 10 40-foot containers of urea to Australia," a manager surnamed Li at an AdBlue producer based in South China's Guangdong Province, told the Global Times.
www.globaltimes.cn
Much of northeast China has been intermittently without power since Sunday as the country comes to grips with a litany of issues, ranging from depleted coal inventories to far-reaching consequences of its national energy policy. Traffic lights and medical clinics in Jilin and Liaoning provinces have been intermittently without power, according to
residents' posts online.
Although the problem is most acute in the frigid northeast, blackouts have been occurring in at least 17 provinces nationwide, including Guangdong, Zhejiang, Shandong, Anhui, and Jiangsu.
Trade wars on the international front and mine shutdowns at home have squeezed stocks of China’s main energy source, coal, triggering nation-wide blackouts.
thediplomat.com
- The number of Chinese provinces with significant power shortages fell to two in mid-October, down from 18 at the start of the month, a Commonwealth Bank of Australia report said.
- "The number of coal power plants with dangerously low coal stockpiles (less than 7 days) has also decreased by 90% in the same time frame," the analysts said.
- Chinese authorities have allowed more production and imports of coal, and cracked down on speculation in soaring prices.
China's coal shortage, which forced factories to cut production, is easing, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia said in a note Tuesday.
www.cnbc.com