By Kate Yuan

Southwestern China’s Sichuan Province asked factories there to suspend production for six days to ensure sufficient supply to residents, as the heatwave has caused tight electricity supply, the local government announced on August 15. The power cut may affect the production of local electronics companies including BOE, Foxconn, HKC and CATL.

All industrial power users in the province's 19 cities and prefectures, excluding the city of Panzhihua and Liangshan Yi autonomous prefecture, will suspend operations for six days, from Monday to Saturday, to prioritize residential power supply, according to the notice issued by Sichuan Economic and Information Department.

Sichuan’s Mianyang City is home to many panel giants including BOE and HKC. A business insider said that HKC is currently negotiating with the local government on power supply. BOE B19 has confirmed a power outage from August 15-20.

Mianyang City is also an important production center for laptops. Taiwan region’s leading manufacturers including Foxconn, Compal, and Wistron all operate their factories there.

Sichuan’s Yibin City is the traction battery hub, and CATL has a large production operation there. As CATL continues to ramp up investment, Yibin will become the world's largest traction power battery production base. The power outage has raised concerns about the supply of the battery market.