Archived News

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 4 Asia Pulse - Petaling Garden Berhad said itsindirectly-owned subsidiary, Perusahaan Minyak Sawit Bintang Sdn Bhd(Bintang), has signed an agreement with Eonchem Technology Sdn Bhd(Eonchem) to construct a Palm Oil Solvent Extraction Plant for RM5 million(US$1.3 million).

8/4/2004 - THE Government is targeting a fresh fruit bunch (FFB) yieldof 35 tonnes per ha a year for the palm oil industry.It also wants to increase the oil extraction rate (OER) to 25 per cent.

KARACHI (July 29 2004): Pakistan's palm oil imports have slowed down assoft world prices discouraged importers from placing fresh orders, dealerssaid on Wednesday. They said the importers would first wait to see wherethe palm oil prices in Malaysia are heading.

HYDERABAD (July 02 2004): Pakistan endeavouring to bridge the gab betweenedible oil production and consumption but the introduction of palm oilcultivation in coastal area of Sindh has hardly brought any fruits.

KUALA LUMPUR (August 05 2004): Malaysian crude palm oil futures rose onspeculative support on Wednesday, bucking initial expectations of a weakmarket.

CENTRAL CITY, Neb. (Dow Jones)--U.S. farmers awoke to find local elevatorsbidding even lower prices for their soybeans Wednesday, as a 5 1/2-centdeterioration in average basis more than offset a 1-cent gain in Novfutures registered at the Chicago Board of Trade Tuesday.Although the continued disintegration of soybean prices may havegrowers mystified, consultant Rich Balvanz, with Ag Management Services ofMarion, Iowa, said a big-picture view of the market shows, "There are noweather problems that are hurting the crop currently. The forecast, atworst, poses some temporary stress. So unless things really deteriorate inthe way that they did last year, we are on our way to very good corn andsoybean yields. This being the case, it is unlikely that new crop lowshave been made, particularly in soybeans."Brokerage firm FCStone currently forecasts the 2004-05 U.S. corn cropat 10.938 billion bushels and the U.S. soybean crop at 2.982 billionbushels.U.S. grain futures were mixed at the Chicago Board of Trade overnight,with gains of 2 1/2 cents in Sep soft red winter wheat, 3/4 cent in Sepcorn and 1/4 cent in Sep oats, offset by a 3-cent decline in Nov soybeans.

8/4/2004 Renewable Fuel News - World production of oilseeds and palm oilis increasing and according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA),that is due in part to the increased use of biodiesel.

31/7/04 - According to customs statistics, China imported 1.4614 milliontons of soybeans in June, with 879,000 million tons from Brazil and535,000 tons from Argentina. China imported 8.9392 million tons in thefirst half-year, down 11.93% from last year over the same time. Accordingto customs statistics, from January to June in 2004, China imported 6.3119million tons of soybeans from USA, up 0.49%, 1.8809 million tons fromBrazil, down 25.91% and 739,800 tons from Argentina, down 44.08%.According to customs statistics, China imported 202,200 tons of soyoil inJune, with 136,800 tons from Argentina and 65,400 tons from Brazil. Chinaimported 1.3783 tons of soyoil in the first half-year, up 173.15%.According to customs statistics, from January to June in 2004, Chinaimported 958,200 tons of soyoil from Argentina, up 177.59% and 419,900tons from Brazil, up 381.77%.According to customs statistics, besides 16,7000 tons of Indian soymealChina imported in the first half-year, China only imported a few USsoymeal. Although the current domestic soymeal prices have been low, theyare higher than the international prices, so traders are trying to importSouth American soymeal. According to customs statistics, China exported82,400 tons of soymeal in June, with 47,000 tons from Zhangjiagang port,17,800 tons from Qinhuangdao port and 10,100 tons from Dalian port. Chinaexported 289,000 tons of soymeal in the first half-year, down 27%.

31/07/04 - According to the relevant sectors, the new standard for theimpurity content of the crude oil will be carried out from October 1 thisyear and the requirement for solvent residue content will be reduced byhalf, affecting the crude soyoil imports in the fourth quarter. Accordingto the overseas enterprises, the effects of the new standard on importedcrude soyoil will be great, making it more difficult to import edible oilsand the imports will decline, so the international traders are trying tofulfill the contracts before September and adopt a wait-and-see attitudeto the sales of crude soyoil for shipments after September. And thedomestic edible oil importers are worrying that signing new importcontracts will face greater risks.

In South America the soya oil export basis remained firm due to thecurrent heavy exports to China and other destinations.In Brazil soybean stocks fell below the year-ago level in June, thedecline accelerated in July and will further widen in August. We estimatetotal Brazilian soybean stocks as of end-August at 17.7 Mn T, down by 2.3Mn T from a year earlier. A heavy pace of exports and crushings was notedso far this season and is expected to be high also in August and probablyin September. As of end-Sept 2004 we estimate total soybean stocks to bedown by 2.7 Mn T from last year. This will reduce Brazilian exports ofsoybeans and products during Oct/Jan 2004/05, shifting world demand to USorigin. The latest OIL WORLD estimates of Brazilian soybean supply &demand crop estimate of 50.2 Mn T, but we are aware that there is still awide range of estimates. At the end of last week ABIOVE estimated the cropat 50.6 Mn T while IBGE reduced its production estimate to only 49.0 Mn T.The IBGE number would, of course, lead to much lower soybean stocks as ofend- Aug and correspondingly smaller Brazilian crushings and exportsduring the remainder of this season. Soybean crushings of ABIOVE membersreached 2.55Mn T in June, the second-highest monthly number, only slightlytrailing the 2.57 Mn T processed in May. This brings the total soybeancrush for all of Brazil to about 2.89 Mn T in June (up 7% from last year)and the cumulation for Febr/June 2004 to 12.87 Mn T (up 7%). Soybeanexports in July amounted to 2.4 Mn T, down from 3.71 Mn T a month earlierbut still up sharply from 1.8 Mn T registered in June last year, accordingto government data. Brazilian exports of soya meal were smaller thanexpected at 1.2 Mn T in July and this contributed to an increase instocks. Exports had been much higher at 2.18 Mn T in June 2004.

8/3/2004 - An amendment to the Food Safety (General Food Hygiene)Regulations 1995 has been published in relation to England only. Itimplements Directive 2004/4/EC which grant a derogation from certainprovisions of Directive 93/43/EEC on the hygiene of foodstuffs as regardstransport of bulk liquid oils and fats by sea. A revised definition of the'list of acceptable previous cargoes for liquid oils or fats' is added.ÝThe new regulations are the Food Safety (General Food Hygiene) (Amendment)(England) Regulations 2004 (S.I. 2004 No. 1727). They come into force on30th July 2004.

30/7/04 - World production of 7 oilseeds is set to recover sharply and islikely to reach 357.5 Mn T in 2004/05, according to our new forecast. Thisis up by 33.7 Mn T from last season's drought-reduced level of 323.8 Mn T.If our production estimates are achieved, price prospects for 2004/05 arebearish, primarily for soybeans and rapeseed. Even with our assumption ofan above-average growth in demand by around 17.3 Mn T, there will be asharp replenishment of oilseed stocks at the end of this season...