A new trade war with the world’s largest economy would hurt China even more, analysts say, as Washington may impose increasing tariffs on its products and further squeeze China out of its supply chains.
China still needs to import strategic materials from the United States, such as advanced microchips and other high-tech equipment, and is counting on American consumers to buy its products, given an increasingly gloomy global trade outlook and weak demand from its own citizens.
Beijing wants to sit down with Trump before he puts more curbs on US high-tech exports and to ensure the renewal of the US-China Science and Technology Agreement, said Alicia García-Herrero, chief Asia Pacific economist at Natixis.
The agreement, which allows scientific collaboration between the two countries, expired in August and negotiations on its renewal are unlikely to be concluded before Trump’s inauguration on January 20.
While China’s Huawei has invested heavily in its advanced chipmaking capabilities, its commercial viability remains unclear, he added, prompting Chinese negotiators to sit down with their American counterparts to reach a deal that guarantees a steady supply of chips made in the United States.
But Beijing also has sticks with which to hit Washington, if the US side believes that China’s failure to comply with its previous purchase commitments means that it will gain more from the tariffs than from the talks.
American companies are already feeling the squeeze, said Michael Hart, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in China.
“American companies and other foreign companies are really concerned about whether they really have access to this market,” Hart said. “Can we even continue selling in China? Do they prohibit us rotu
For more than 30 years, the Panama Canal has illuminated the aquatic “highway” along which ships travel with renewable energy thanks to a set of “leading” towers and buoys equipped with solar panels, leaving the “electric light” behind.
Electrician Cornelio West watches as his partner scales one of the remote guiding towers that guide the navigation line through the Canal, to perform the second annual maintenance on the solar panels with which they generate energy.
In the most remote points along the 80 kilometers of the waterway, there are 137 of these enormous towers with two white panels and a light tube above that guides the boats through a series of colored lights.
The red light means that the “line” of the “road” is approaching with the possibility of colliding with another vessel, the white light means that it is “well in its lane” and the green light warns that it is approaching the shore and could run aground.
While the other 450 buoys indicate to the pilots the “safe” navigation channel in both directions, as maritime lighting specialists of the Panama Canal explain to EFE from one of those guiding towers, located at the top of a hill on the banks. of the road, which helps navigation.
“This sector leading tower uses solar panels as renewable energy, since we do not have electricity in the area, so we have had to adopt that energy with the Canal,” he details to EFE West.
90 kilowatts along the Canal in solar panels
Each tower and buoy is equipped with nine 250-watt solar panels and one 20-watt panel, respectively, along with batteries and LED lights (with lower consumption), making the interoceanic waterway illuminated at night, although said amount of instruments depends on the same structure.
Thanks to this, the Panama Canal has “around 90 kilowatts installed in solar panels” that are produced by “taking advantage” of five hours of sunlight daily to charge the batteries and “supply the necessary voltage for the night,” according to the electrician. canalero to EFE.
“We installed 9 250-watt panels that generate 2,250 watts per hour. While the sun is out the panels are generating (energy). “There are regularly 5 hours a day that they take advantage of the sun to charge the battery so that they can supply the necessary voltage at night,” details West.
This means that along the Panama Canal they have “installed around 90 kilowatts of solar panels,” specifies the road expert.
Economic savings of $30,000 per year
The use of solar energy in the important interoceanic waterway began in the 1990s, still under the administration of the United States, and has had more detailed development in recent years, becoming the largest source of energy for maritime signaling. inside the channel.
This adaptation to a more environmentally friendly source has also meant significant energy savings in maritime signaling for the canal since, according to estimates offered to EFE, they can be up to 2,500 dollars less per month and 30,000 per year.
“(Solar energy) represents a great saving for the company since that would generate an electrical energy cost of around $2,500 per month and $30,000 per year that we save with these facilities that we have here in the canal. As time goes by, we are innovating in other types of facilities,” he explains.
This, according to the same channel, has progressively reduced the emissions generated by thermoelectric plants, which are increasingly in disuse.
With information from Reuters.
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