Jan. 27 (Bloomberg) -- China issued a weather alert and boosted coal shipments as snowstorms were forecast to continue. At least 30 flights from Beijing airport were canceled and Xinhua News Agency reported about 150,000 rail passengers were stranded.

The alert, designated as level 2, includes 24-hour weather monitoring and warnings, as well as speedy disaster relief, Zheng Guoguang, head of the China Meteorological Administration, said today in a statement on the agency's Web site. Heavy snow that has covered central and eastern China since mid-January will continue in the coming week, the statement said.

Snowstorms that swept central China's Hunan, Guizhou, Anhui and Jiangxi were the worst in decades, affecting living and industrial production, the agency said in separate statements. China, which burns coal to generate 78 percent of its electricity, has shut 5 percent of its coal-fired power plants as heavy snowfall and railway congestion delayed coal deliveries.

The ``disastrous'' weather ``will continue in those areas in the coming week, and will continue to disrupt transport, telecommunication transmission, power supplies, living and production,'' the meteorological agency said.

In Hunan province, where snowstorms were the worst since 1954, five people had died as of Jan. 25, most factories stopped production and local airports and some highways were closed, the administration said in a separate statement. Another five people have died in Guizhou, state-run Xinhua reported today.

Metal Producers

China's central and eastern provinces are home to many metal producers. Tongling Nonferrous Metals Group Co., the nation's largest copper maker, and Jiangxi Copper Co., the second largest, are based in Anhui and Jiangxi, respectively.

Aluminum Corp. of China Ltd., the nation's largest maker of the lightweight metal, had two plants in Guizhou halted by power failures.

Phone calls made to the companies weren't answered.

Millions of Chinese will travel for the week-long Lunar New Year holidays early next month.

At least 30 flights from Beijing to central Chinese destinations such as Nanjing and Wuhan were canceled, according to the Web site of Beijing Capital International Airport Co.

Phone calls to the hotlines of the Shanghai and Beijing airports were unanswered.

Some 20 flights were delayed and a few canceled today at Nanjing Lukou International Airport because of heavy snow, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. Highways to and from the airport were closed, the report said.

Hunan's Huanghua Airport has been closed since Jan. 25 and will probably not reopen before 10 a.m. local time tomorrow, state-run Xinhua reported today.

Trains Stopped

About 150,000 people were stranded at Guangzhou Railway Station late on Jan. 26 after a power failure caused by snow and ice stopped more than 136 trains in Hunan province, Xinhua said.

The number of people stranded in the city of Guangzhou may reach 600,000 tomorrow if the bad weather continues, Xinhua reported, citing a local rail transport official.

Power lines from the Three Gorges hydro-electric dam in central Hubei province to Shanghai were damaged in the snowstorms, the official Xinhua News Agency reported earlier, without saying when they were expected to be repaired.

Coal shipments were yesterday increased by 2,000 to 36,000 train carriages a day, Railway Minister Liu Zhijun said at a conference today, according to minutes released by the government. That's 30 percent greater than the increase that occurred about the same time last year, he said.

The government should make it a ``top priority'' to ensure fuel supply, Premier Wen Jiabao said at the same conference, according to the minutes.

The country will support normal production at key coal mines and help smaller mines that meet safety requirements to resume production, Ma Kai, head of the National Development and Reform Commission, said at the conference today.

China has ordered domestic shipping companies to halt coal exports during the Lunar New Year and the National People's Congress meeting in March to ease shortages.

To contact the reporter on this story: Li Xiaowei in Shanghai at xli12@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: January 27, 2008 06:22 EST