Vietnam is giving factories in northern provinces, where Apple Inc. suppliers and Samsung Electronics Co. operate plants, permission 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 5 p.m. daily, said Dao Xuan Cuong, who overseas industrial parks in Bac Giang province. Factories last week were told to curtail production between 5 p.m. to 7:45 a.m.
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.
Available power capacity in northern Vietnam improved over the weekend after several malfunctioning coal-fired generators were repaired and some hyrdropower reservoirs saw water levels rise after light rain.
Water shortages in reservoirs may lessen further with more rain forecast, according to state media and the national weather agency. Beginning Tuesday, the agency forecasts 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.
