China has fully restored electricity supply to areas hit by the heaviest snowstorms in five decades, the nation's two power distributors said.
Power supply is back to normal starting March 8, State Grid Corp. of China and China Southern Power Grid Co., said in separate statements on the Web site of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission today.

The heaviest snowfalls since 1954 brought down electricity cables and disrupted coal shipments to power plants, disrupting electricity supply to half of China and forcing smelters, carmakers and manufacturers to halt production.

China's power grids suffered unprecedented damage because of snow, State Grid, the bigger of the two distributors, said in a statement. The company's loss reached 10.45 billion yuan ($1.47 billion), it said.

State Grid said last month it needs 39 billion yuan to restore power links. Southern Power Grid plans to boost this year's spending by 40 percent after the snowstorms damaged equipment, Chairman Yuan Maozhen said last week.

Power station coal supplies have basically returned to normal, Ma Kai, the chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission, the nation's top economic planner, said March 6.