Fluor Corporation has contracted Advanced Global Investment Co. (AGIC), a subsidiary of Advanced Petrochemical Co. (APC), to provide a project management consulting for AGIC’s new propane dehydrogenation, polypropylene and utilities and offsites complex in Jubail Industrial City, Saudi Arabia. The consultancy services will also include front-end engineering design, detailed engineering, procurement and construction phases of the project. Fluor’s official website has said that the company partially booked the contract value in Q1 2020.

The complex will be able to make 843,000 tpy of propylene and 800,000 tpy of polypropylene for production of the specialty polymers to be used in the face mask, the automotive, the pipe, the food packaging and the textile industries.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles reported gradually restarting its three factories in Brazil on Monday, 11 May, after the 48-day production pause caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The automaker added that 6,400 out of its roughly 10,000 employees returned to work.

‘At the first step of restarting process, the priority will be effective training of all workers in layout and process changes in light of new safety and sanitary standards. Production will increase in May once the plant adapts to new procedures and market demand,’ the company said.

Fiat Chrysler had produced 1,600 vehicles per day (vpd) at its plant in Betim, Minas Gerais, and 1,000 vpd in Goiana, in Pernambuco, before operations stopped in Brazil on 23 March. Brazil’s vehicle output totalled 1,800 in April as the coronavirus outbreak paralysed industrial production throughout the country.

The Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro argued that the economy should recover as too severe local government lockdown measures against the virus led to unnecessary job losses.

Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Zakat and Tax (GAZT) confirmed on 11 May that it would impose three times more VAT on all goods and services from 1 July 2020 to offset the economic impact of the coronavirus and the recent plunge in crude oil prices, according to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA).

The government also reported that it would suspend the cost of living allowance from then. It was first introduced in 2018 as a financial help of SAR 1,000 ($267/€245) to ease state employees’ financial burdens including VAT and expensive petrol.