Jan. 29 (Bloomberg) -- China's worst snowstorms in five decades have affected 77.8 million people since Jan. 10 and caused about 22.1 billion yuan ($3.07 billion) in direct economic losses, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said.

More blizzards, ice and freezing temperatures are expected in southwestern China until Feb. 6, the Chinese Weather Information Service said in its daily 10 a.m. forecast. Airports, highways and railway lines shut, leaving millions of passengers stranded as they head home for next week's Lunar New Year holiday.

``We still haven't reached the most difficult period,'' said Li Jiaxiang, acting head of the General Administration of Civil Aviation, according to a statement on its Web site.

Snow has been falling in eastern, central and southern China for more than two weeks, straining supplies of food and coal in the world's fastest-growing major economy. Snowstorms killed 24 people, destroyed 4.2 million hectares of farmland, crushed 107,000 houses and damaged 399,000 homes, the ministry said.

Fourteen provinces out of 31 on the mainland are suffering electricity blackouts while coal supplies to power stations have been disrupted, forcing metal smelters to cut output. The inclement weather may be caused by La Nina, the cyclical cooling of Pacific Ocean waters, Xinhua News Agency said.

A 30-kilometer traffic jam formed this morning along the main road between Guangdong and Hunan provinces as broken-down vehicles blocked the highway and gasoline stations ran out of fuel, the Ministry of Public Security said on its Web site today.

Hu Jintao Action

President Hu Jintao today ordered more action to relieve transport logjams and power shortages, the government said on its official Web site.

``The most urgent task is to guarantee smooth transportation and power supplies,'' he told an emergency meeting of the Politburo, the nation's highest decision-making body.

Premier Wen Jiabao announced the allocation of 126 million yuan ($17.5 million) for emergency relief in the worst-hit provinces of Anhui, Jiangxi, Guangxi and Guizhou. He flew to southern China's Hunan province last night to assess the damage and casualties caused by the heaviest snowfall there since 1954.

The snowstorms ``will exacerbate China's already accelerating inflation, by pushing up food prices further in January and February,'' Deutsche Bank AG's Chief Economist Ma Jun wrote today in a research note from Hong Kong. ``Stronger inflation pressure, especially coupled with rising inflation expectations, may force further tightening of macro policy and thus hurt growth.''

Flight Delays

Local wholesale markets must halve the service charges on fresh and live agricultural products between Jan. 26 and Feb. 5, the National Development and Reform Commission said.

One in every two flights in Shanghai, China's financial center and the country's busiest aviation hub, were delayed yesterday at the Pudong and Hongqiao airfields, the Shanghai Airport Authority said. Shares of Shanghai International Airport Co. fell for the second day, dropping 9 percent since Jan. 25.

McDonald's Corp.'s China Chief Executive Jeffrey Schwartz said he was stuck on a plane on the Hongqiao Airport tarmac for 10 hours yesterday, waiting for his flight to Beijing to take off.

``It was snowing so heavily and Shanghai doesn't get snow, so they just weren't used to handling this kind of situation,'' he said today in Beijing. ``We were there from 10 a.m. till 8 p.m. but we had our laptops, mobile phones and Blackberries so we just set up a little office on the plane.''

Shares Drop

Airlines should prepare for deteriorating weather conditions over the next few days and make sure stranded passengers are supplied with food and drink, Li from the aviation authority said.

Some airports are re-opening and only the Wuhan and Changsha airfields remain closed, China Central Television said. Shanghai's airports are still suffering serious delays, CCTV said.

Shares of airlines and transport companies fell in Shanghai today over concerns the snowstorms will hurt revenue and profit. Air China Ltd., the world's biggest airline by market value, fell 1.2 percent to 21.47 yuan.

The storms will increase maintenance costs in January, Air China's head of investor relations Rao Xinyu said from Beijing. The impact on earnings may be ``very limited,'' she said.

China Mobile Ltd., the world's biggest carrier by users, has restored 70 percent of 22,000 base stations in central and southern China that were knocked out by recent power shortages, spokesman Rainie Lei said in an e-mailed statement.

Railway Worst Affected

Railway services were worst affected in southern Guangdong province, where half a million passengers have been stranded for at least two days at the Guangzhou Railway Station, according to the local government's Web site. Authorities have suspended the sale of train tickets until Feb. 6, it added.

The Guangdong labor and social security bureau today advised the 30 million migrant workers in the province to abandon plans to return home for the new year festival as they may not reach their destinations, Xinhua reported.

Daqin Railway Co., the operator of China's biggest coal transport network, dropped 5.7 percent to 21.12 yuan on concern current snowstorms will disrupt transportation.

Vehicles have been stranded on highways for as long as three days, according to the Ministry of Public Security.

Jiangsu Expressway Co., eastern China's largest operator of toll highways, said it's only letting trucks on its roads to avoid accidents. The stock's price plunged 8.4 percent yesterday, recovering 3.3 percent today to 9.3 yuan in Shanghai.

Schwartz said the storms were causing McDonald's Corp., which has 875 restaurants in the country, ``real challenges in the whole of central China,'' particularly in Wuhan.

``Our average restaurant has two to three days supply of products,'' he said. ``Our supply chain manager has been working out a strategy to supply Wuhan if this lasts much longer.''

The death toll given by the Ministry of Civil Affairs does not include 25 people who died when their bus overturned on icy roads in southern Guizhou province today, Xinhua reported.

To contact the reporters on this story: John Liu in Shanghai at jliu42@bloomberg.net; Irene Shen in Shanghai at ishen4@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: January 29, 2008 05:13 EST