Archived News

3/28/05 - Here’s a word of caution on the fiercely-growing commodityfutures trading, which often reflects unbridled speculation. According toLamon Rutten, chief, finance risk management and information - commoditiesbranch, UNCTAD, the trend of high trading volumes and low open interest isnot healthy.Fears are that excessive speculation in the domestic commodities futuresmarket may have some impact on the underlying spot market. Over the pastcouple of months, the market has seen high trading volumes coupled withremarkably low open interests, which have reportedly been attributed topunters and circular trading. Low open interest signals the entry and exitof a trader from a futures trade before the close of trading hours on anexchange.Participation in the commodities futures market by large corporates andother institutional players could help check this trend, Rutten told ET.Although it is early days, there are traders and industry watchers whorecall how futures trading was banned over three decades by the governmentdue to excessive speculation. Another neighbour, China, had also moved ina similar fashion a decade ago.The developments in the commodities market which have created a sense ofdisquiet are reflected in a few commodity futures. First, it was guarseedwhich recorded a daily volume of Rs 50 crore in the first week of July ’04. Volumes then soared to Rs 1,700 crore daily during the first week ofSeptember, a hefty growth of 3,300%.However, during the same period, the open interest in guarseed increasedfrom 27,500 tonne to 133,500 tonne, a growth of only 385%. Recently, thedaily trading volume in jeera zoomed from Rs 13.7 crore on February 18 toRs 279.5 crore on February 24, ’05, - a whopping 1,934% growth. Incontrast, during the same period, open interest in jeera increased from4,344 tonnes to only 8,979 tonnes - a moderate 106.7% rise.The spot-to-futures trading ratio is also abnormally high. The annual spotmarket for jeera is worth around Rs 1,000 crore and the average daily spottrading is estimated to be less than Rs 5 crore. The volume of Rs 300crore traded on national exchanges on February 24 was more than 60 timesthe daily volume in the spot market.S Sundareshan, chairman of the market regulator for commodities - ForwardMarkets Commission (FMC) - declined comment on the issue.Some trade experts term low open interests and high volume as "marketmaking" by the exchanges. The September ’05 mild steel contract on NCDEXhas zero open interests since March 11 to 22, though Rs 3,500 crore ofsteel has been traded. The exchanges, however, have been silent on the"market making" issue.According NCDEX’s chief economist Madan Sabnabis, it would take some timebefore any comparison with the benchmark global exchanges could be carriedout.Globally, trading volume and open interests go hand-in-hand on benchmarkexchanges like, Nymex, IPE, CBOT and NYBOT. Spot to futures multipliersare usually within 50. Only in the case of gold and silver, it hasexceeded the threshold.Jignesh Shah, managing director, MCX, said that participation of onlyspeculators could distort the price discovery process through futurestrading. Kailash Gupta, managing director, NMCE, said, instead of volumes,national exchanges like, NCDEX and MCX should focus on quality of tradingin the initial years.Globally, trading volume and open interests go hand-in-hand on benchmarkexchanges like, Nymex, IPE, CBOT and NYBOT. Spot to futures multipliersare usually within 50. Only in the case of gold and silver, it hasexceeded the threshold.

Monday, March 28 2005 - FPG Oleochemicals Sdn Bhd, a 50-50 jointventure between Felda Palm Industries Sdn Bhd and Procter & Gamble (P&G)of the US, is set to turn its plant in the Kuantan Port Industrial Areainto the biggest oleochemical complex in the world.

Monday March 28, 2005 - PLANTATION-BASED Kulim (M) Bhd is on track tobecome the world’s largest fatty acid producer in a single location bySeptember this year.

Monday March 28, 2005 - Kulim (M) Bhd is giving itself two years toachieve a balance between its downstream and upstream activities. Itsmanaging director Ahamad Mohamad spoke to StarBiz on the steps taken bythe company to achieve the target.

Thursday, March 24, 2005By Jimmy Schmidt

March 25 2005 - GOLDEN Hope Plantations Bhd is expected to perform betterin 2005 compared with last year on the back of firm crude palm oil (CPO)prices.

Mar 24, 2005 JAKARTA - Malaysian Trade Minister Rafidah Azzis has calledfor the reactivation of the "Growth Triangle", an area development conceptplanned by the previous governments of Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand, alocal daily reported on Wednesday.

24/3/05USD Recovery Negative For Vegoil Exports(Dow Jones)--Stonger USD negative for edible oil prices, could hitexports; EUR/USD now at 1.297 vs high of 1.348 mid-March. Stronger USD mayaffect soyoil, palm oil exports as it makes dollar-denominated commoditiesmore expensive for consumers, traders say.

24/03/05 - In response to India's move to slap a high import duty on crudepalm oil (CPO), the world's top CPO producers -- Indonesia, Malaysia andThailand -- aim to form a trilateral cooperation pact that couldeventually affect global CPO prices.

3/23/2005 - Greenergy Fuels Ltd, a fuels business with annual sales of £1billion and a leader in the supply of premium quality biofuels, announcedtoday that it has joined forces with shareholder Tesco to service therapidly growing European biofuels market. The partnership with Tesco willenable Greenergy to extend its existing domestic and European biodieselsupply operations by building the UK's largest single-line biodieselproduction facility.

Tuesday March 22, 2005 - THE prolonged drought in the region will have apositive impact on the prices of commodities like crude palm oil (CPO) andrubber, but production will be lower.

The Jakarta Post - Mar 21 6:36 PM - India will maintain its higher importduty on crude palm oil (CPO) despite complaints from Indonesia, IndonesianMinister of Agriculture Anton Apriyantono said on Monday.