Lockdown: Eskom lost a maintenance opportunity, utility admits

China produces and consumes two-thirds of the world’s pork, but output is to be so severe it will match plunging as Beijing destroys Europe’s annual pork herds and blocks shipments output and exceed U.S. to stop African swine fever. production by 30%, industry

Importers are filling the researchers say. JOHANNESBURG gap by buying pork as - far While Eskom is on track to meet “Everyone its wants to import immediate away as Europe, maintenance boosting needs, the drop in electricity as much demand pork as possible,”

said industry analyst Angela that prices came by up with to 40% the and lockdown has been a lost opportunity

causing shortages in other Zhang of IQC Insights.

for the utility to get to grips with its long-term maintenance

markets. She said the trend is likely

needs, spokesperson Sikhonathi Mantshantsha told Fin24 on

“I’m a fresh-pork lover, but to accelerate as Chinese

Wednesday.

it’s too expensive,” Lee, 87, production falls.

Last week Eskom told South Africans, in its last power update, that it would not need to implement load shedding during the 21-day lockdown, thanks to a fall in the demand for electricity that came with President Cyril Ramaphosa’s instruction for South Africans to stay at home.

Ramaphosa declared the lockdown in a bid to stem the spread of the Covid-19 novel coronavirus, which has claimed five lives in

South Africa and had risen to 1 353 cases as of Tuesday.

The lockdown’s stipulation that the majority of the population is bound to weigh on the economy, which recently entered a fresh technical recession.

Mantshantsha told Fin24 that Eskom had not been doing any public power updates as the national power system was experiencing a 7, 500 MW average drop in demand and Eskom managed to reduce unplanned breakages to just under 9, 500 MW.

“We have doubled planned maintenance. This is the maintenance that can be done immediately. We doubled it to over 9, 000 MW of planned maintenance because demand has dropped enough for us to conduct this maintenance,” said Mantshantsha.

However, Mantshantsha said long-term maintenance would not be an option during the lockdown period, as to plan this kind of maintenance often takes months.

That’s a boost for farmers in Germany, Spain and other countries with healthy pigs but hard on families in Southeast Asia and other poor markets that rely on pork for protein.

This year’s Chinese pork output might fall by up to 35%, according to Rabobank, a Dutch bank.