Archived News

September 21, 2004 - KUALA LUMPUR (Dow Jones)--United Plantations Bhd.(2089.KU) may sell its 46% stake worth 1.1 billion ringgit ($1=MYR3.80) inAarhus United (AARUTD.K) of Denmark, a vegetable oils and specialty fatsmanufacturer, the daily New Straits Times reports.

22/09/04 KUALA LUMPUR (Dow Jones)--Asian cash palm oil prices were mixedWednesday, with the Malaysian market extending declines amid persistentpressure from technical selling and weak market sentiment.However, buying interest improved in Malaysia, as recent sharp fallstriggered some fresh demand at lower levels.Palm oil prices have been on the decline for the better part ofSeptember, dragged down mainly by losses in soyoil futures.At the Chicago Board of Trade, soyoil futures have dropped around 400points so far this month, on signs that U.S. soybean production this yearmay be among the highest ever seen, contrary to earlier talk of a poorcrop.The benchmark CPO futures contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivativeshas fallen close to 200 ringgit ($1=MYR3.8) since early September. At 0728GMT, the contract was at MYR1,406/ton, down MYR10 from Tuesday afterbriefly falling below the MYR1,400 psychological support level.Trading activity in the cash market, which was sluggish in the pastfew days, improved Wednesday as buying interest for palm oil products forOctober and November/December delivery emerged."Now that prices have come off quite a bit, the interest is comingback," a trader said, adding that there were indications of renewed demandfrom consumers."Some of the traders who are buying are quite big suppliers to India,"the trader said.Despite the buying interest, the market was still weak, as there wasstill aggressive selling pressure, led by a major international tradinghouse.Traders said technical indicators suggest the potential for furtherdeclines for the rest of the week following the breach of the MYR1,400support level in the futures market Wednesday.They said the supply and demand outlook also appears slightly bearish."Production is good. People are saying it could be around 1.5 million(tons) in September, and October will also be a good production month," atrader said, adding that exports may struggle to keep pace withproduction.In the cash market, RBD palm olein for October shipment was offered at$440.00/ton, down $5/ton from Tuesday.RBD palm oil for October shipment was offered at $430.00/ton, alsodown $5/ton.In Indonesia, fresh buying interest also emerged following recentlosses, with RBD palm olein in Jakarta offered at 4,550 rupiah($1=IDR9,150) a kilogram, up IDR50 from Tuesday.CPO in Medan was offered at IDR3,850/kg, up IDR49 compared with theprice traded during Tuesday's government auction.

Thursday September 23, 2004 - WEATHER will again be the key factor thatcould drive crude palm oil (CPO) prices higher going forward.

9/21/2004 - BUSINESS TIMES (MALAYSIA) - A CONSORTIUM of local privatecompanies plans to set up Malaysia's first palm oil-based diesel plantwithin the next three months, with Europe as its main target market.

9/22/2004 THAI PRESS REPORTS - In the first announcement of annualresults since Univanich was listed on the SET in November 2003, Chairman,Mr. Apirag Vanich, noted that strong growth in Thailand's oil palmindustry has assisted the Company in achieving several new growthmilestones. "Thailand's production of palm fruit increased to 4.8 milliontonnes in 2003 with most of the growth in the small farmer sector. Thisenabled Univanich to also increase its production since the Companypurchased 76% of its fruit from outside growers " said Mr. Vanich. "Due tothis increasing production from our fruit suppliers Univanich factoriesreached the significant milestone of more than 500,000 tonnes fruitprocessed in one year, an increase of 18.6% over the previous year. Thisis the maximum of the Company's present capacity and a new factory isalready under construction for opening in the 4th quarter of 2004" hesaid.

DEWAN RAKYAT, Sept 21 - MALAYSIA should make full use of advances inbiotechnology to exploit the potential of the oil palm industry, abackbencher said yesterday.

18/09/04 CHINA - Although the US soybean prices have dropped greatly thisweek, China has still only bought less than 2 million tons of soybeanstotally, with most of the contracts signed by FOB term. At present, thepurchasing funds of most Chinese large and middle crushers have beenshort. If the procurements of both the domestic and international soybeansdecline this year, the soybean prices in Northeast China will beinfluenced by insufficient demand, which will provide broad developmentspaces for large foreign crushers, and this will probably lead to greatchanges in the pattern of China’s soybean crushing industry in 2004/05.

18/09/04 CHINA - The newly signed soybean import contracts by the twolarge Chinese oil groups have accounted 80% of the total, mainly by FOBterm, and the large Chinese crushers used to organize delegation to USAfor soybean procurements. The domestic soybean crushers have contracted 4or 5 US soybeans by CNF term, with the buyers being two large oil groups,and the signing of the contracts has been shelved or avoided disputes, sothe signing has been very complicated. Most Chinese large or middle-sizedcrushers are facing no foreign suppliers, so they have turned to domesticsoybeans or South American soybeans; or have suffered losses in the firsthalf-year, making their funds short. Two large Chinese oil groups areexperiencing the best opportunity in the past years for development andunder the current situation that the competitive edge of other crushershave reduced, they will grow rapidly, including merger, rebuild and extend

Wednesday September 22, 2004 - GOLDEN Hope Plantations Bhd (GHope) andUniversiti Malaya (UM) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) tocollaborate in research and development (R&D) pertaining to conservationand development of biodiversity and natural resources on Carey Island,Selangor.

KOTA KINABALU, Sept 21 (Bernama) -- The government will prioritise threethrust areas -- productivity, efficiency and competitiveness -- as part ofthe strategies and policies under the Third National Agricultural Policy(NAP3) to address high dependency on imports.

21/09/04 - JAKARTA (Dow Jones)--Indonesia's PT Astra Agro Lestariexpects the country's crude palm oil exports to India to rise by 5%-10%following India's decision to lower CPO tariff values by $50 a metric ton,Bisnis Indonesia reported Tuesday.A downward revision in tariff values, from which import taxes arecalculated, has effectively lowered the import tax on CPO in India.Benny Tjoeng, vice president of Astra Agro Lestari, was quoted assaying the change will boost India's CPO consumption, as it will make thecommodity cheaper."The price of CPO in India (will decline) by $32 a ton" as a result ofthe move, he said.India has been the company's largest market for CPO, taking in around10,000 tons a month, Tjoeng said.However, he said the company has no plans to increase its exports toIndia, as it plans to keep domestic and export sales around the samelevel.Indonesia is the world's second largest CPO producer after Malaysia.The government has predicted production will reach 11 million tons thisyear, buoyed by a steady increase in plantation area to 4.6 millionhectares.According to the Indonesian Palm Oil Association, or Gapki, Indonesiaproduced 9.9 million tons of CPO in 2003, while the Indonesian governmentputs the figure at 10.6 million tons.

21/09/04 - KUALA LUMPUR (Dow Jones)--Private surveyor Palmis ManagementBhd. Tuesday estimated Malaysia's September crude palm oil output at 1.410million to 1.415 million metric tons, up from the 1.32 million tonsproduced in August, traders familiar with the latest Palmis report said.According to traders who obtained the data, Palmis estimated Septemberpalm oil exports at 1.220 million to 1.225 million tons, little changedfrom 1.22 million tons in August.Palmis pegged end-September stocks at 1.33 million to 1.34 milliontons, up from 1.26 million tons at end-August, traders said.Palmis is the only private palm oil crop forecaster in Malaysia, andits production, export and stock forecasts are closely watched by themarket.Traders said the report had little immediate impact on prices, as itdidn't provide any clear guidance on the outlook for supply and demand."Exports were flat (on month), which is kind of a surprise, given thefigures. The production was also a bit of a surprise because (Palmis) putit at 1.4 million. The market feels this is a bit on the low side," atrader said.Traders said market expectations are for exports to show strong growthin September, contrary to Palmis' forecast.The bullish export outlook is underpinned by estimates issued thisweek by cargo surveyors Intertek Testing Services and SGS (Malaysia) Bhd.The surveyors estimated a surge in exports of as much as 22% on monthin the first 25 days of September.Full-month export figures from the cargo surveyors are dueend-September.Palm oil output in September is expected to be much stronger than inAugust, as production is usually at its peak at this time of the year,traders said.There has been talk of production of around 1.5 million tons inSeptember, traders said.Traders said with no bullish leads from Palmis, palm oil prices arelikely to remain under pressure because of the bearish global edible oilproduction outlook.Global edible oil prices have been on the decline in recent weeks onexpectations of a bumper soybean crop in the U.S.At 0739 GMT, the benchmark December CPO contract on the Bursa MalaysiaDerivatives was at 1,417 ringgit ($1=MYR3.8) a ton, down MYR12 fromMonday.