March, 2020

• 31 March

  Oldest Asian railway turns coaches into India isolation wards

  

  Bloomberg Indian Railways, the world’s fourth-biggest network, is converting at least 5,000 coaches into isolation wards amid fears the world’s most populous country after China may not have adequate infrastructure to deal with the pandemic. Mosquito nets and charging points for mobile phones and laptops have been fitted, and space has been created for paramedics, Indian Railways said in a ...

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• 31 March

  Indonesia plans village squads to prevent spread of coronavirus

  

  Bloomberg Indonesia plans to mobilize volunteers to fight the spread of coronavirus in coastal villages and the vast hinterlands of the archipelago with part of a $4.4 billion rural budget to be used to fund the initiative. The squads of volunteers will help authorities in increasing awareness about the pandemic in the country’s almost 75,000 villages, collect data on people ...

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• 31 March

  Hong Kong warns quarantine-breakers they’ll face prosecution

  

  Bloomberg Hong Kong is warning residents to abide by home quarantine orders and social distancing regulations or they will face criminal prosecution and fines, as the Asian financial centre continues to battle a resurgence in imported coronavirus cases. The city has already caught more than 70 people violating some of the more than 50,000 home quarantine orders, sent them to ...

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• 31 March

  Record sale of sanitary products in Japan

  Bloomberg Japanese sellers of masks, toilet paper and other sanitary products are turning out to be rare beneficiaries of the coronavirus. Sales of masks, alcohol wipes and other healthcare products jumped by about 47% at Japanese drug stores, a record in trade ministry data going back to 2014. Outlays on daily necessities including toilet paper surged 31%, also a record. ...

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• 31 March

  Oil traders hustle for tankers to divert US crude to Asia

  

  Bloomberg Oil majors and traders are scrambling to book supertankers to try and divert a flood of American crude to Asia, betting the region is the best place to store the surplus while the market waits for a rebound. A dozen very large crude carriers are being sought to load from the US Gulf Coast over a 10-day period from ...

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• 31 March

  Brazilian distributors declare force majeure on ethanol purchase

  

  Bloomberg Brazil’s two largest fuel distributors declared force majeure on purchases of ethanol as the coronavirus pandemic hammers demand in Latin America’s largest economy. The Raizen venture owned by Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Cosan SA sent a letter to suppliers invoking the clause for both anhydrous ethanol that’s blended in gasoline and the hydrous variety used directly in cars, ...

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• 31 March

  Two shale CEOs support plan to curb Texas output

  

  Bloomberg Pioneer Natural Resources Co and Parsley Energy Inc are asking Texas oil regulators for an emergency meeting to consider curbs on state output as a collapsing oil market envelops the nation’s biggest crude-producing state. Jointly signed by the chief executives of both companies, the letter seeks a virtual meeting among the three-member Texas Railroad Commission no later than April ...

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• 31 March

  Wind-power industry heads for record year

  

  Bloomberg What was meant to be a year that blew the wind energy industry well past its previous record for installations will more likely pass with gains that are merely solid. Developers are set to boost capacity by 9% this year to 66,422 megawatts, according BloombergNEF. That’s scaled back from the 24% expansion the London-based research arm of Bloomberg LP ...

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• 31 March

  China is using more coal again. This time it may be a good thing

  

  Bloomberg China is burning more coal in yet another sign that the first country hit by a coronavirus outbreak is returning to a level of normalcy. Daily coal burn at select coastal plants has doubled from early February, at the height of the country’s lockdown to stop the spread of Covid-19. The plants are responding to resurgent electricity demand as ...

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• 31 March

  China’s CNIC eyes stake in India renewable firm

  Bloomberg Chinese state-backed investment fund CNIC Corp is considering purchasing about a 10% stake in Greenko Group, one of India’s largest renewable energy companies, according to people familiar with the matter. Greenko, whose backers include Singapore sovereign fund GIC Pte has been seeking to raise around $800 million by introducing a long-term investor, said one of the people. The Indian ...

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