Zeetrade News

Friday, 31 Jan 2020 6:50 AM MYT Oil China CNP Dalian NEW YORK: Oil prices fell more than 2% on Thursday to the lowest in three months on concerns over the potential economic impact of the coronavirus that continues to spread worldwide, while the market also considered the possibility of an early OPEC meeting. Brent crude was down $1.52, or 2.5%, to settle at $58.29 a barrel. The global benchmark earlier dropped to $57.71, its lowest since Oct. 8. U.S. crude fell $1.19, or 2.2%, to settle at $52.14 a barrel, after hitting a session low at $51.66 a barrel, its weakest since Oct. 10. Prices have steadied in recent days at three-month lows as investors tried to assess what economic damage the virus might inflict and its impact on demand for crude Oil and its products. "The overriding bearish price influencer remains as the coronavirus that appears to possess much additional risk of spreading rather than any nearby suggestion of containment," Jim Ritterbusc...

Friday, 31 Jan 2020 4:54 AM MYT White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow speaks during a TV interview at the White House in Washington, U.S., January 30, 2020. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The fast-spreading coronavirus, which has killed 170 people in China and infected six in the United States, should have little impact on the U.S. economy, President Donald Trump's chief economic adviser said on Thursday. "We see no material impact on our economy," Larry Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council Director, told Fox Business Network. Kudlow said the Trump administration had taken a look at the outbreak of SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, in the early-2000s and found the economic impact on the United States had been negligible. SARS was first reported in Asia and spread to more than two dozen countries. "There was no material impact," he said, adding, "This may or may not be worse." Cases of coron...

Friday, 31 Jan 2020 I AM writing to voice my concern over the water rationing exercise in Melaka which is due to start soon. It is amazing that Melaka, the smallest state in Malaysia, is experiencing disruptions in water supply which will subject the residents to untold misery and inconvenience. Disruption in water supply would also effect the tourism industry and local businesses here, so why weren’t plans drawn up to solve this issue long before now? When the drought starts, the government lectures citizens to save water, use less water, etc. But when the rainy season comes, everything would be forgotten – until the next year. Ensuring uninterrupted water supply to its citizens should be the government’s number one priority, yet there is no master plan in place for this so far. The authorities concerned have not even come up with any plans for storing rainwater. Underground tanks are an option for storing surface run-off water. I hope the federal minister in charg...

Friday, 31 Jan 2020 MELAKA: A Melaka assemblyman vented his frustration in a WhatsApp chat group comprising top state officials when his constituents failed to get their water supply restored after a 24-hour rationing exercise. Duyong assemblyman Damian Yeo Shen Li hit the Melaka Water Company (SAMB) key management team with a series of harsh messages yesterday after supply did not reach households at 10am and had still not done so by 5.30pm. Water had been cut off from 10am the previous day under the alternate 24-hour rationing exercise being conducted due to the prolonged drought in the state. “Macam mana ni. Mana janji-janji katakan air sudah masuk? Please lah?” he asked in one of his messages. (What is going on. What has happened to the promises that supply will be restored?) This prompted the administrator of the chat group, a Tenaga Nasional Bhd official, to advise him to watch his words, to which Yeo retorted: “SAMB has not kept its word. Calls are not being heeded...

Thursday, 30 Jan 2020 9:46 AM MYT KUALA LUMPUR (Bernama): Malaysia has been more prepared and proactive, and has also acted faster, in containing the novel coronavirus compared to previous times when faced with dangerous infections such as SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), the Nipah virus and Ebola. Infectious disease specialist Datuk Dr Christopher K.C. Lee told Bernama Wednesday (Jan 29) that experience in containing these past infectious diseases had made Malaysia more prepared to deal with such situations, and this included having more thermal scanners which have been placed at all entry points into the country, as well as isolating coronavirus cases and placing suspected cases under quarantine. He said swift measures such as these were important in reducing potential local transmissions of the virus in the country. "Compared to SARS in 2002, when we took weeks to trace the infections, now we have managed to do so much earlier due to our experience,...

Thursday, 30 Jan 2020 11:56 PM MYT The ultrastructural morphology exhibited by the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV), which was identified as the cause of an outbreak of respiratory illness first detected in Wuhan, China, is seen in an illustration released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. January 29, 2020. Alissa Eckert, MS; Dan Higgins, MAM/CDC/Handout via REUTERS (Reuters) - A new coronavirus that has killed 213 people in China is spreading to other countries, alarming healthexperts. Here is some of what we know - and don't know - about the virus: WHERE DID THE VIRUS COME FROM? The virus is believed to have originated late last year in a food market in the Chinese city of Wuhan that was illegally selling wildlife. Health experts think it may have originated in bats and then passed to humans, possibly via another species. The World Health Organization (WHO) was alerted to several cases of pneumonia in Wuhan...

Thursday, 30 Jan 2020 Worrying sight: Sungai Muda seen from near the PBA Holdings Bhd pumphouse, in Kepala Batas. GEORGE TOWN:  Penang’s primary raw water source – Sungai Muda in Kedah – has dipped below the 1.80m alert threshold since Jan 1. In announcing the second alert, Penang Water Supply Corporation (PBAPP) chief executive officer Datuk Jaseni Maidinsa said the water level was at 1.46m on Tuesday. “The normal level for Sungai Muda is above 2.0m, ” he said. “The last time it was this low was in 2016, during the super El Nino phenomenon.” He said if the water level continued to drop, the 14 treatment plants in Kedah would be in trouble. He said some of these plants provide water to Sungai Petani and Kulim High-Tech Park. Jaseni, in his press statement, said the capacity of the Muda and Beris dams in Kedah, which release water into Sungai Muda, were reported to be at 9.56% and 75.33% respectively. “Despite cloud seeding being carried out in Kedah, it h...

Thursday, 30 Jan 2020 Once package B of the Langat 2 Water Treatment Plant is completed, some 565MLD of water can be channelled to around 900,000 residents in the Klang Valley. THE water reserve margin has now increased to 10% since operations at the Langat 2 Water Treatment Plant began. Selangor Mentri Besar Datuk Amirudin said the project was 80% completed and was producing 325 million litres per day (MLD). He said when package B of the project was fully completed, some 565MLD of water could be channeled to some 900,000 residents in a day. “The new treatment plant will help reduce reliance on existing plants. “In the past some of the older plants were operating at 100% full capacity. “With the new plant, we will also be able to better control the treatment quality, sustainability as well as the work flow at the plant. “We had very low water margins in the past. “It was as low as 3%. “We are confident that our margin will increase further. It now shows abo...

Wednesday, 29 Jan 2020 4:31 PM MYT SOFIA (Reuters) - Bulgaria's government survived as expected on Wednesday a parliamentary vote of no-confidence brought by the opposition Socialists after thousands of people have been left with water shortages since November, leading to public protests. A total of 124 deputies in the 240-seat parliament voted against the fourth no-confidence vote against the centre-right coalition government led by Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, while 102 lawmakers were in favour. The Socialists sought to topple the government which came to office in 2017, accusing it of failing to prevent severe water shortages in the western city of Pernik - a crisis that led to the ousting of Environment Minister Neno Dimov earlier this month. The Socialists also blamed the government for failing to impose proper controls over garbage imports and serious air pollution in many cities of the Balkan country. Prosecutors have charged Dimov with deliberate mismanage...

Tuesday, 28 Jan 2020 12:04 PM MYT KUALA LUMPUR (Bernama): Throughout 2019, the Klang Valley experienced disruptions in water supply at least nine times, a good number of which were due to contamination of the raw water supply. Water disruptions can also be caused by technical problems, maintenance works at treatment plants, burst pipes, and high turbidity levels of the river water – but the most worrying among them is the contamination of raw water as a result of oil and diesel spills and discharge of toxic effluents into rivers by unscrupulous factory operators. River basins are most vulnerable to pollution for that is where solid waste such as furniture and, of more concern, illegal industrial effluents are usually disposed of. Each time the raw water source is contaminated by diesel or toxic waste, the operations at the treatment plant concerned have to be brought to a halt to prevent further damage. According to experts, Malaysia's water treatment plants are not...