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KUALA LUMPUR, July 16 (Bernama) -- Primary Industries Minister Datuk SeriDr Lim Keng Yaik said there is a great possibility of good investmentopportunities with several large companies in China in the oleochemicalindustry and the development of brand products in soap, detergents,toiletries and cosmetic.He said that during his mission to China recently, the Malaysiandelegation met and discuss possible joint ventures with Chinese companiesin the field of these palm oil downstream products.

Online investment advisor Surf88.com writes on prospects in the palm oilindustry.NOT AS BAD. Overall, the June palm oil statistics turned out better thanexpected. While crude palm oil (CPO) production increased 2% as expectedfrom May, exports did not decline as much as feared, falling 7.2% versusexpectations for a 9% drop.Palm oil stocks continued to fall for the fourth consecutive month, downby another 2% to just above 910,000 tonnes.For the first half of 2002, CPO production fell 6% from the same periodlast year while exports were about 5% lower. Palm oil stocks at end-Junewere 25% below end-2001 levels, and the lowest in four years.Reasons to be still positive. The recent weakness in CPO prices was indeedtemporary, and prices have since climbed back to around RM1,380 per tonne.We believe there is room for further upside even though the crop isentering its peak production season.Meteorologists now believe that the chance of El Nino happening at the endof this year is as high as 90%. If so, this will affect palm oilproduction next year, after an estimated 10% decline in 2002.Latest estimates for major global edible oils already point to anotheryear of tight supply, reducing stocks to its lowest levels in four years.We are hence still positive on plantation stocks and would retain ouroverweight call. Our top picks are KLK (RM6.50), PPB Oil (RM3.12), IOICorp (RM6.30) and IOI Corp-WA (RM2.77).l For more reports, click on www.surf88.com

Tuesday, July 16, 2002 (The Star) - MALAYSIA will soon become a majorproducer of high quality paper made from worthless empty palm oil fruitbranches, thanks to Chinese technology.Primary Industry Minister Datuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik said a Malaysiancompany has come up with the technology to turn the empty fruit branchesinto high quality fibres that were suitable to produce various types oftimber and paper products.“In this trip to China, we found several Chinese machinery companiescapable of turning these fibres into high quality paper.“In fact, we will be starting a test programme with this Chinese companyvery soon to produce brown wrapping paper using 100% palm biomass fibres,”he said in an interview here yesterday.His ministry would be sending 30 tonnes of the raw material to the Chinesecompany in Shanghai, which has claimed that it could make 30 tonnes ofpaper out of the material.The Chinese are known for producing high quality but low-priced machinery.“Our experts will witness the process to ensure that only palm biomassfibres are used. I am very impressed with what the Chinese have shown meand am very excited about the future of the palm oil industry,” he added.Lim said the empty fruit branches were worthless and the 360 palm oilmills in the country gather 30 million of the biomass a year. Some of thebranches are turned into low-grade fertiliser and carted back to theestates but most are discarded.“In most cases the mills have to beg or even pay others to cart away theempty fruit branches but with this new technology the biomass will becomevery valuable.”Lim said the Chinese already had the machinery to make such paper usingdiscarded padi stalks, adding that making paper from empty palm fruitbranches in Malaysia was a cheaper option than using discarded padi stalkor even timber.“All the empty branches are centred at the mills thus paper manufacturersneed not gather the raw materials from all over the place like they do fordiscarded padi stalk.“It is cheaper than using timber or wood chips as there is no need to chopdown trees, pay for logging royalties, loggers and forest rehabilitation,”said Lim, adding that producing paper from palm biomass was 30% cheaper.He said palm biomass fibres could be used to make all sort of papersincluding newsprint, which cost the country about RM2bil a year to import.A factory fitted with Chinese machinery is estimated to cost aboutRM500mil compared with RM6.8bil for the normal paper mill producing500,000 tonnes of paper.He said the biomass fibre could also be used to make multi densityfibreboard and particle board.There was also technology available to turn the trunk of the palm treeinto high quality timber, he added.

7 July 2002 (Business Times) - MALAYSIA’S plantation sector is expected tocontinue the strong performance it recorded in the first six months ofthis year, based on shrinking supply and growing demand.

KUALA LUMPUR, July 13 (Bernama) -- Palmco Oil Mill Sdn Bhd was appointedas the new president of the Malayan Edible Oil Manufacturers' Association(MEOMA) at its 42th Annual General Meeting here, Saturday.Three vice presidents were also appointed namely Felda Kernel Products SdnBhd, Lam Soon (M) Bhd and Jin Lee (Oil Mills) Sdn Bhd.

KUALA LUMPUR, July 11 (Bernama) -- Potential investors from China areurged to look at Malaysia's palm-based oleochemical business as an optionto consider besides commercially exploiting the large quantity of biomassgenerated by the palm oil industry."We see the Chinese demand (for oleochemicals) is on a growing trend.

06 July 2002 -PRIMARY Industries Minister Datuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik willlead a 10-day palm oil economic and investment mission to China startingtomorrow.

KUCHING, July 8 (Bernama) -- A crude palm oil refinery complex costingRM50 million will be built at the Kidurong Industrial Area in Bintulu toenhance Sarawak's palm oil industry, said Austral Enterprises Bhd'smanaging director, Dr Radzuan Abdul Rahman.The refinery, which is expected to be in operation in 2004, would beundertaken by a joint venture company, Austral Edible Oil, to be jointlyowned by Austral and Lembaga Amanah Kebajikan Masjid Negeri Sarawak(LAKMNS).

Monday, July 8, 2002 - PALM oil producing region Sandakan, on the eastcoast of Sabah, is now able to cater for rapid expansion of oil palmplantations and subsequent increase in production following the recentcompletion of the new and better capacity mill, the Sepagaya palm oilmill.The mill, owned by the state’s leading oil palm-based Sawit Group, has amilling capacity of 45 tonnes of fresh fruit bunches (FFB) per hour.It replaces the Suan Lamba mill, which has a smaller operating capacity of20 tonnes per hour.In a statement on Saturday, Sawit Group said the Suan Lamba mill hasceased its operations and all palm oil milling have been taken over bySepagaya mill, effectively making it the sole milling operator in theSandakan region.“The opening of this mill coincides with Sawit Group’s business expansionprogramme for future requirement in crop processing,’’ it said.Sepagaya mill will be capable of milling up to 216,000 tonnes of FFB perannum. The capacity can be expanded to 90 tonnes per hour or 432,000tonnes annually to cater for increase in crop production in the future.Sawit Group is expected to process up to 1.4 million tonnes of FFB thisyear.“With the Sepagaya Mill, oil palm growers within the district also standto reap the benefits of the Sawit Group’s expanding milling activities asfair prices are offered for the harvest coupled with improved facilities,”Sawit said. – Bernama(The informations and opinions expressed in this article represent theviews of the author only. They should not be seen as necessarilyreflecting the views of Palm News)

Tuesday, July 2, 2002 - KUMPULAN Guthrie Bhd has defended its decision tostake its future in Indonesia as the kind of forward thinking that couldwell double its earnings per share (EPS) in the near future.Its group chief executive officer Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahimacknowledged that there were investors and shareholders who still viewedthe company’s foray into Indonesia as a folly that had ramped up itsgearing to 1.19 as at March 31.He said it had taken a while for the group to get its 200,000ha Minamasplantations – for which it paid RM1.4bil – into order, but gave anassurance that things were now in order; and should crude palm oil (CPO)prices hold around the US$350 to US$400 level, “Guthrie is poised for avery successful time’’.Khalid said the best EPS the company achieved in the past five yearsamounted to 20.3 sen, in 1997.“With the acquisition (of Minamas), we can target to achieve a two-foldincrease in EPS,’’ he told a briefing for analysts at the group’s officein Bukit Jelutong yesterday,Khalid also pointed out that the contribution from the group’s Indonesianoperations had turned around from a loss of RM37mil in the nine months in2001, to a profit of RM10mil for the first quarter of the year.Guthrie, he said, was now working to accelerate its total crude palm oil(CPO) production to one million tonnes annually from about 500,000 tonnesat present, with the Minamas plantations to contribute about two thirds ofoutput.However, Guthrie, which already has 11 mills in Indonesia, would have toinvest quite considerably in an additional eight to 10 mills over the nextfour to five years to meet its refining needs.But prior to that, it is committed to addressing its total borrowings ofRM2.88bil as at end-March.Khalid said that Guthrie was taking the necessary steps to reduce itsloans to RM2.39bil by the end of 2004, through a programmed disposal ofhigh value properties, such as its recent sale of the Haron Estates toGolden Hope Plantations Bhd for RM565mil, and the proposed sale of a 10%equity in Minamas for US$45mil to US$50mil, plus the sale of Group Acompanies shares for around the same price.(The informations and opinions expressed in this article represent theviews of the author only. They should not be seen as necessarilyreflecting the views of Palm News)

05 July 2002 (Business Times) - MALAYSIA’s palm oil market expects biggestbuyer, India, to go on a buying spree anytime soon as it stocks upsupplies in anticipation of the Deepavali celebrations in November.

03 July 2002 (Business Times) - THE world’s first pulp and paper mill thatuses oil palm biomass as feedstock is expected to start operations in thecountry by 2004.