By Casey Hall
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Soaring temperatures in China’s commercial capital Shanghai throughout July have made Ye Xiangxiang a busy man.
The manager of the Shanghai’s Yuhu Ice Company Ltds. ice-making factory on the outskirts of the city, Ye says business in 2022 is double that of a normal year.
“This year the weather is quite hot and the temperature is high – in Shanghai, the hottest reported temperature has been over 41 degrees – for us, for our company it makes a big difference,” Ye said.
Though spending hot summer days surrounded by ice might seem like the coolest job in town, Ye and his factory workers are pouring sweat as they hoist 40 kilogram ice blocks onto trucks on days when Shanghai has issued an “orange alert” for temperatures topping 37 degrees.
“It’s just non-stop. The workers are only able to rest a few hours each day,” Ye said.
As well as Yuhu’s regular customers – such as farmers markets and seafood markets around Shanghai – they are also selling more ice to customers in other cities experiencing hot weather.
Ye, 30, says Shanghai’s local governments and sub-districts are also among new customers. Some have started providing ice blocks to make volunteers more comfortable during the city’s regular mass COVID-19 testing.
Volunteers at testing sites, who wear head-to-toe protective gear, have suffered particularly uncomfortable conditions.
Although Ye’s company is benefiting from the hotter weather, he is very concerned about wider global issues.
“The world getting warmer is not a good situation because we need to use more refrigeration and more energy and science tells us this is creating an abnormal situation,” he said.
(Reporting by Casey Hall, editing by Ed Osmond)
