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The UK's newest, and largest, hospital facility is preparing to open its doors to take in coronavirus patients needing intensive care treatment. East London's ExCeL exhibition centre, which normally plays host to lifestyle shows, expos and conferences, has been converted into the temporary NHS Nightingale hospital, with space for 4,000 beds. In nine days, the 87,328 square metres of double exhibition halls, have been fitted out with the framework for more than 80 wards, each with 42 beds. Some 500 fully-equipped beds, with oxygen and ventilators, are already in place and there is space for another 3,500. If it did reach capacity, it would be one of the largest hospitals in the world. How was it built? The facility, which was officially opened on Friday, was built with the help of up to 200 soldiers a day from the Royal Anglian Regiment and Royal Gurkha Rifles, working long shifts alongside NHS staff and contractors. Timelapse video of NHS Nightingale being built ...

The future price of orange juice has spiked by more than 20% this month as consumers look for healthy products during the coronavirus pandemic. While demand has risen, supply has been hit as producers struggle to transport goods due to transport restrictions. This has driven a rise in the so-called "futures" price of orange juice, which indicate its cost for delivery in the coming months. Orange juice futures are the best performing asset so far this year. "The Covid 19 outbreaks are hitting both the supply and demand for orange juice. The immune-boosting properties are the demand side attraction while there are simply not enough tanker spaces with airlines not flying to bring the product to markets," said Stephen Innes, chief global market strategist at broker AxiCorp. On the supply side, there are also issues with not having enough workers as plantations introduce restrictions such as social distancing. "Traders are wondering if workers are ar...

The world surplus could reach 20 million barrels per day (mb/d) in the next few weeks, threatening not only to top off storage tanks everywhere, but to crash prices even further and shut in oil production.    The shutdown orders in the U.S. continue to multiply, confining tens of millions of people to their homes. Much of Western Europe remains on lockdown as well.  The impact of this pandemic will only grow as the U.S. has failed to contain its spread. Cases are doubling every few days, and state governments are rushing to impose stay-at-home orders. The response is scattershot, much too late and still much too permissive to stop the spread. But large-scale home isolation is now the only option to mitigate the damage.  “Developments over the past week in terms of the spread of the coronavirus in the US and in the policy response to it, imply to us that the fall in US demand could be as high as 7 mb/d in the worst month,” Standard Chartered analysts wrote in a...

In the current straitened sanctions period, Iran’s focus in its oil sector is broadly to increase the capacity of its fields in West Karoun and from the huge fields that it shares with Iraq. This strategy allows it firstly to generate income even in the low price oil environment - its US$1-2 per barrel lifting cost is the same as Saudi Arabia’s - and secondly to position itself to take up any slack in supply caused by dint of the oil price war. According to a senior oil sector source who works closely with Iran’s Petroleum Ministry, Tehran expects Saudi Arabia, for one, to struggle to meet the  fantastical supply figures  that it has given to key potential buyers, particularly in the East, in the coming weeks and beyond. This view appears entirely reasonable, given that just last week Saudi Aramco reportedly rejected at least three Asian refiners’ requests (one Korean, one Taiwanese, and one Chinese) for additional crude for April, on top of their long-term supply deals....

Coronavirus has been spreading rapidly across the world, affecting 175 countries and claiming more than 21,000 lives. There are more than 470,000 confirmed cases worldwide. Southern Europe is now at the epicentre of the crisis and the US is also facing a surge in cases. This series of maps and charts will help you understand what is going on. 1. The global pandemic continues to grow The virus is spreading rapidly in many countries, with nearly 400,000 confirmed cases outside China, according to the latest figures from Johns Hopkins University. The true figure for the number of people with coronavirus is thought to be much higher as many of those with milder symptoms have not been tested and counted. Coronavirus global cases, 26 March 2020 This information is regularly updated but may not reflect the latest totals for each country. Cases Deaths China 81,667 3,285 Italy 74,386 7,503 USA 68,795 1,037 Spain 49,515 3,647 Germany 37,323 206 Iran 27,0...