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KUALA LUMPUR, March 7 (Bernama) -- Malaysia and Indonesia have proposed ajoint trade mission to China and India to seek better access to the palmoil markets of these two major export markets.

KUALA LUMPUR, March 8 (Reuters) - Malaysia's crude palm oil futures willtrade within a range of 900 to 1,200 ringgit ($237-$316) a tonne this yearwith high global soy crop and lower Indian imports keeping a lid on price,a leading Indian trader said on Friday."I forecast that CPO prices will range between a high of 1,200 ringgitand a low of 900. We are likely to see the highs in the earlier part ofthe year and the lows firstly around June and then again aroundSeptember," said Dorab Mistry, director of Godrej International Ltd."Once again this year, we are faced with huge soya crops in Brazil andArgentina. We also have an extremely competitive currency in Argentinathat should give Argentine soyoil exporters a big advantage," he told anedible oil conference.Mistry expected prices of refined, bleached and deodorised (RBD) palmolein to range between $280 and $350 a tonne FOB Malaysia this year.Soyoil is a direct competitor to palm oil.Malaysia's benchmark third-month May crude palm oil futures contract

KUALA LUMPUR, March 7 (Reuters) - Malaysia's crude palm oil futures mayreach 1,500 ringgit ($395) a tonne in the third quarter of 2002 due to anexpected decline in global edible oil stocks, an industry source said onThursday."The second position on MDEX should approach 1,500 ringgit becausestocks are down,"James Fry, managing director of LMC International Ltd, aBritish-based economic consultancy told Reuters on the sidelines of anedible oils conference.The second month of the crude palm oil futures traded on the MalaysianDerivatives Exchange (MDEX) last touched 1,500 ringgit in May 1999. Thecontract closed at 1,163 ringgit on Thursday.Fry said there would be a decrease of about 1.5 million tonnes ofedible oils stocks, which include soyoil, rapeseed and sunflower, in2001/2002 (October-September).The level of stocks believed to be available in the global market wascurrently estimated at 3.4-3.7 million tonnes, according to industrysources."This translates into a price forecast that sees the MDEX secondposition approach 1,500 ringgit during the July-September quarter, beforea reaction occurs to higher CPO output and the crushing of the newseason's oilseeds in the northern hemisphere," said Fry."Prices in the final calendar quarter will average in the region of1,300 ringgit per tonne," he added.Fry said decline in global edible oils stocks was mainly due to fallsin sunflower and rapeseed production, adding that an expected fall inMalaysia's palm oil output in 2002 was also a factor.Malaysia, the world's largest palm oil producer, was expected toproduce as little as 11 million tonnes in 2002, down from 11.8 milliontonnes last year because of the current replanting programme and theimpact of the El Nino weather phenomenon.

KUALA LUMPUR, March 7 (Bernama) -- A Sudan Shipping Company is forgingties with Halim Mazmin Bhd, Malaysia's mainline operator, to increasefreight frequency between the two countries, Sudan's Minister of FinanceAbdel Rahim Mahmoud Hamdi said here today.

The Argentine government on Monday announced the implementation of anexport duty on agricultural and industrial goods. Raw materials such asoilseeds and grains will be subject to a 10% duty and manufacturedcommodities to one of 5%. The latter will be applicable to exports ofvegetable oils and oilmeals. The introduction of an export tax was alreadydiscussed last week. The decision contrasts with President Duhaldesstatement earlier this year in which he dismissed such plans. EconomyMinister Remes Lenicov yesterday called the export tax a temporarymeasure, but no details were disclosed concerning its duration. Thetaxation of agricultural exports will bring much needed revenues for theheavily indebted government. The measure evoked strong protests fromfarmers, which fear that the export tax will translate intocorrespondingly lower domestic prices. As a complementary step, thegovernment reduced the VAT from 21% to 11%. Favourable rainfall has beenreceived in central Argentina since March 1 and has improved growingconditions somewhat in parts of Cordoba and Santa Fe, which had becomecritically dry. A weather system moving through S. America is forecast tobring widespread and above normal rainfall to the Pampa region. Thesoybean harvest is under way only in the northern regions. In most areas,soybeans can still benefit from the improved weather conditions, butdryness has already done some irreversible damage to first-crop soybeansin northeastern Cordoba and central Santa Fe. The Buenos Aires province isexpected to remain largely dry in coming days, boding well for sunflowerharvesting, which will soon begin in this region. The sunflower harvesthas progressed to 17% or 0.35 Mn ha nationwide, from which 680 Thd T ofsunseed were produced, implying a high average yield of nearly 2.0 T perhectare so far. Yield results from the key growing areas of the B. Airesprovince must now be awaited, but under continued favourable conditions atotal crop of 3.5 Mn T can be expected.

KUALA LUMPUR, March 6 (Reuters) - China will eventually use its palm oilimport quotas for this year, but the timing of its purchases and how muchthe country is going to buy remain a mystery, traders said on Wednesday."There are talks that two-third of the quota will go to private sectorand the rest to state enterprises," said one trader in Malaysia."The state enterprises will be told not to import anything until laterthis year because China is harvesting rapeseed. The government doesn'twant the local market to collapse," he added.China issued palm oil import quotas for 2002 in February, totalling 2.4million tonnes, up from last year's 1.4 million tonnes following its entryto the World Trade Organisation (WTO).China is expected to buy Refined, Bleached, Deodorised (RBD) palmolein, which is mostly used in the country's instant noodle industry, fromMalaysia and Indonesia.But the government said this week it has not delivered this year'simport quotas for farm products, including wheat, corn and edible oils, totrading firms and there might be a delay in the March 5 deadline.The possible delay added to anxiety in Malaysia and Indonesia, theworld's largest producers, because Chinese buyers could not import edibleoil without government licences."Even prominent players in China are not sure as to when the import(licences) will be on hand," said one trader.China bought 1.02 million tonnes of palm oil from Malaysia in 2000, upfrom 800,135 tonnes in 1999.

07 March 2002 (BusinessTimes) - MALAYSIA’S crude palm oil (CPO) prices areexpected to rally in tandem with the outcome of a major seminar on thecommodity’s price outlook today.Traders said the market currently relies on market-moving news to bepresented by industry experts before players can initiate their positions.“There is a general consensus that CPO prices may react favourably to ahost of good news from the seminar and may reach the RM1,200 a tonne levelnext week,” a trader told Business Times yesterday in Kuala Lumpur.The Malaysia Derivatives Exchange (MDEX) will hold the annual palm andlauric oils conference and exhibition on CPO price outlook 2002/2003 inSeri Kembangan, Selangor, today.The two-day event, which will be officiated by Primary Industries MinisterDatuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik, is being attended by local and foreignindustry experts.“There is a general consensus that the world is focusing only on soyabeanand palm oil at the moment due to the tightening supply of their competing15 edible oils,” said the trader.Other edible oils and fats include coconut, cottonseed, rapeseed, corn,tallow and linseed.The trader said that any positive forecast on CPO by experts during theseminar may boost the commodity’s prices, at least until July whenrapeseed and sunflower oil are due for harvest.“Projections of a drop in CPO production by year-end, the possibility of arecurrence of El Nino and China’s pledge to buy 2.4 million tonnes of thecommodity are enough to excite the market,” he said.The trader added that global rapeseed production for the 2001/2002 seasonwill see a decline of 1.37 per cent to 13.67 million tonnes from 13.86million tonnes in 2000/2001.“Global sunflower production is also expected to decline by 13.8 per centto 7.5 million tonnes during the 2001/2002 season against 8.7 milliontonnes in 2000/2001,” he said.“At best, CPO prices can continue to remain rangebound between RM1,150 andRM1,180 a tonne, at least for the whole of next week after the seminarends,” he said.Meanwhile at MDEX, CPO futures contracts ended higher with the benchmarkthird-month May delivery closing RM1 higher at RM1,166 a tonne.March, April and June deliveries gained RM3, RM8 and RM2 to close atRM1,153, RM1,159 and RM1,175 a tonne respectively.Open interests gained 260 contracts to close at 9,367 contracts, whilevolume gained 646 lots to close at 2,098 lots.

6 March, 2002 (Oil World Flash) - The EU-15 sharply raised imports of 17oils and fats from third countries in Jan/Dec 2001 while exports to thirdcountries declined significantly. The 15 countries raised imports fromnon-EU countries to a record 5.5 Mn T, up 0.6 Mn T or 12% from the yearbefore. During the same period, EU exports to third countries declined by0.25 Mn T to only 2.45 Mn T, a 5-year low. This sharp increase in netimports is due to several factors. It can be expected that net importrequirements continue to rise this year, at least until July, since thefollowing factors generally remain in place:

KUALA LUMPUR, March 7 - Partial data available indicate CPO production inFebruary was in line with our projection of December 14. As a matter offact, combined actual output in December-January at 1.88 million tonnesalso came close to our estimate/projection of 1.865 million tonnes(1.86-1.87 million tonnes).We peg production in February at 775,000 tonnes. This is 160,000tonnes or 17 percent lower than a month earlier. Year-on-year, productionfell 113,400 tonnes or 12.8 percent. This brought the contraction in thelatest three months December-February to 8.2 percent or 235,000 tonnes.Our December 14 estimate/projection on offtake in December-January attwo million tonnes also came close to actual offtake of nearly 2.03million tonnes. The 30,000 tonnes more in actual offtake reflected verymuch larger than projected imports of palm oil. This was also the case inFebruary when imports remained large at an estimated 42,000 tonnes or wellabove our previous tentative estimate of 17,000 tonnes but offtake thistime fell severely.While total palm oil supply turned out to be somewhat higher inFebruary, total offtake was a big dissappointment. Exports at an estimated670,000 tonnes can be described as dismal as they were down substantiallyfrom 827,500 tonnes a month earlier and 821,700 tonnes a year ago. Themonth-on-month drop in exports of around 158,000 tonnes was due chiefly tolarge declines in liftings by the European Union (EU) and Pakistan.Shipments to the European Union (EU) fell by around 50,000 tonnes toan estimated 75,000 tonnes while Pakistan cut its offtake by an estimated60,000 tonnes to 75,000 tonnes. Shipments to the United States (US) alsofell sharply by 20,000 tonnes. The only spark in the gloom was China whichraised its offtake to an estimated 130,000 tonnes from 72,000 tonnes inJanuary and 63,200 tonnes a year ago.Shipments to India at around 105,000 tonnes dropped slightly by some5,000 tonnes compared to January but fell a hefty 100,000 tonnes fromFebruary last year. This brought the contraction in shipments to India inJanuary-February to a hefty 170,000 tonnes or 44 percent to an estimated216,000 tonnes from 386,000 tonnes a year ago.The continued contraction in imports of edible oils by India sinceSeptember last year followed a significant recovery in the winter (kharif)oilseed harvest of 1.4 million tonnes to 12.3 million tonnes last Octoberand expectations for an increase of up to 900,000 tonnes in the simmer(Rabi) oilseed crop to be harvested in about a month's time. No changeswere made in India's import tariff structure for vegoils or oilseeds inthe recent Budget.The month-on-month decline in palm oil production in February was moreor less matched by a similar drop in exports. However, with importscontinuing at a high level, stocks of palm oil at end-February thus showan increase of around 20,000 tonnes to 1.27 million tonnes. U.S. stocks ofSBO also remained at high levels and even rose to upset forecasts latelast year they would decline.Stocks at end January reached all time record high level of 3,045million lbs (1.3 million tonnes), up from 2,868 million lbs in thepreceding month and 2,380 million lbs a year earlier.Argentina's announcement yesterday of a levy or tariff of 10 percenton exports of grain and oilseeds and five percent on meal and vegoils cameas a little surprise. The cash-strapped government needs to have a shareof the windfall profits on agricultural exports boosted by the more than50 percent gains arising from the development of the peso against thedollar. Argentina has been a keen seller in the export market in recentweeks. China meanwhile missed the deadline yesterday to issue certificatesof entitlement for TRQs.(The opinions expressed in this article represent the views of theauthor only. They should not be seen as necessarily reflecting the viewsof Reuters)

KUALA LUMPUR, March 6 (Reuters) - Malaysian Derivatives Clearing House(MDCH) said on Wednesday it had introduced a new membership scheme toguarantee smoother trading for crude palm oil (CPO) futures on theMalaysian Derivatives Exchange.The Direct Clearing Membership (DCM) will allow eligible participantsto maintain CPO futures open positions directly with the clearing houseand minimise trading risks."The facility, particularly for institutional users of CPO products,acts as means of minimising counter-party risk and ensures absoluteconfidentiality of positions," the clearing house said in a statement,adding that applications for membership begin on March 6.A DCM member will execute trades through a futures broker, and will nowbe able to clear trades directly with the clearing house. Under theprevious system trade participants were required to trade and clear palmoil futures via brokers."DCMs will be able to carry out post trade transactions, such as tradesand position maintenance, margining and settlements directly with theMDCH," said the statement.The MDCH clears and settles CPO futures contract, the Kuala LumpurInterbank Offer Rates Futures Contract, the Composite Index FuturesContract and the Composite Index Options Contract, which are traded on thederivatives exchange."MDCH is confident that this new category of membership, DCM, willaddress the issues of counter-party risk and confidentiality," thestatement said.

MOSCOW. Feb 28(Interfax) - The Russian government has scrapped licensingfor the export of sunflower seeds, rapeseed and soybeans, as well as forimporting tobacco and its commercial substitutes.The government information department said that the relevant resolution(N129) was signed on February 26 with the aim of further liberalizingforeign trade operations.IAM analysts forecast that Russia may expand its sunflower crop area nextyear because many oilseed refineries have increased.Yelena Tyurina, the director of the Institute of Agrarian Marketing (IAM),said the cancellation of licensing for oilseed exports would simplifyingexporting procedures and increase the number of exporters. "However, thisyear this measure will not have much impact on the domestic market andforeign trade operations because there is virtually nothing to export,"Tyurina told Interfax.Russian production of sunflower seeds fell to 2.7 million tonnes last yearfrom 3.9 million tonnes in 2000.The global shortage of sunflower seeds and the resulting high prices willalso encourage Russian farmers to increase production.In these circumstances, the scrapping of licensing will stimulate growthof exports, Tyurina said.

1 March, 2002 (OIL WORLD WEEKLY)- World stocks of 8 major veg. oils are estimated at 10.8 Mn T as of 1April 2002 down 0.8 Mn T on the year. As of Jan 1, global inventoriesamounted to an estimated 11.6 Mn T, down 0.5 Mn T from a year ago.-The year-on-year increase in world production is seen diminishing toabout 0.4 Mn T in Jan/March 2002.- World disappearance of 8 oils is likely to show an increase of 0.7 Mn Tthis quarter from the year before, a slowdown from an average growth of1.1 Mn T.