CHINA’S annual factory gate prices grew at their fastest pace on record in September, driven by energy curbs and soaring commodity prices, piling pressure on businesses already grappling with supply bottlenecks. The producer price index (PPI) rose 10.7 percent from a year earlier in September, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Thursday, the biggest rise since the data began to be compiled in 1996. Economists in a poll had expected the PPI to rise 10.5 percent after a 9.5 percent increase in August. A widening power shortage in China, caused by the country’s transition to clean energy, booming industrial demand and high commodity prices, have halted production at numerous factories including many supplying big global brands. The power crunch has hit output across the cement, steel and aluminum industries, while utility companies have struggled to keep up with post-pandemic power demand. Against this backdrop, Chinese energy and petrochemicals futures rose to multi-year and record highs respectively Monday, also fuelled by an oil price rally. The government has taken a raft of measures to curb record-high coal prices and ease the country’s power crunch, including urging coal miners to boost output and manage electricity demand at industrial plants. Despite this, coal prices have remained elevated, partly due to the shutdown of dozens of coal mines as floods hit top coal producing province of Shanxi. NBS data also showed China’s consumer price index (CPI) rose 0.7 percent year on year in September, smaller than the 0.9 percent gain forecast in the poll and a 0.8 percent rise in August. Pork prices, a key component of China’s CPI, dropped 46.9 percent year on year. (SD-Agencies) | 