Archived News

Friday October 22, 05:24 AM - Humanity's reliance on fossil fuels, thespread of cities, the destruction of natural habitats for farmland and theexploitation of the oceans are outstripping the planet's capacity to cope,the conservation group WWF said.

19/10/04 BUSINESS TIMES (MALAYSIA) - PORT Klang Authority (PKA) said itssister port relationships with several ports around the world have workedto increase trade and promote shipping and logistic services betweenMalaysia and the countries concerned.

10/21/2004 ALAMOSA, Colo. USA -- Blue Sun Biodiesel(R) announces thenation's first high-volume commercial biodiesel blending terminal andintegrated biodiesel processing plant. High-performance biodiesel blendswill be available from the terminal beginning this November.

16/10/04- China and Indonesia have reached an agreement to lower some palmoil tariff. The 24 degree Malaysian palm oil FOB quotes for Novembershipment are at $415-418 per ton this week, so the duty-paid cost will be4,630-4,670 Yuan per ton, greatly lower than that in September.

16/10/04 CHINA - The 24 degree palm oil quotes have been at 5,500-5,550Yuan per ton in Tianjin early this week, with port stocks owned by severallarge refineries and crushers, and the sale has been slow due to the dropof temperature, and dropped to 5,350 Yuan per ton late this week. Theimported crude soyoil prices have been at 5,750-5,780 Yuan per ton inTianjin and 5,800-5,850 Yuan per ton in Jiangsu and Shandong.

Oct. 21, 2004 INDIA - Late rains in key oilseed-growing regions haveimproved the prospects of India's winter crop and the resultant soilmoisture would boost the size of the summer crop, traders said onWednesday. The winter crop is sown in July and harvested by late November,while the summer crop is ready for harvest in April. Groundnut and soybeanare the main winter crops, while rapeseed forms bulk of the summer crop. "We are in for a bumper summer crop," said Sandeep Bajoria, president ofthe Central Organisation for Oil Industry and Trade. "We might surpasslast year's summer oilseed crop size of 10 million tonnes." India, theworld's top edible oil buyer, imports 40 percent of its annual needs of 11million tonnes. It buys palm oils from Malaysia and Indonesia and softoils from Argentina and Brazil. The oilseed sector in India, the world'sfourth-largest vegetable oil producer, has a turnover of about $15 billiona year. The country has 1,500 oil mills, 600 solvent extraction units and500 refining units. Traders said winter oilseed output was expected to beat least a million tonnes lower than last year's 13.9 million tonnes dueto erratic rains in the middle of the June-September monsoon season.Sowing in oilseed-growing states including Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh andMaharashtra was delayed and staggered, and those states got almost no rainat all during the sowing month of July. But late rains in September andearly October have made up for that shortfall to some extent and the soilmoisture would help the next summer crop, traders said. The farm ministrysaid crop scientists have advised farmers to make the best use of themoisture, recommending early sowing of mustard and rapeseed in thenorthern plains. Bajoria said late rains have helped sowing of summercrops, mainly rapeseed in the largest-growing state of Rajasthan.

20/10/04 (Dow Jones)--India edible oil industry lobby group COOIT asksgovernment to review base prices for imports on monthly basis; timing ofrevision now entirely at government's discretion, which can be disruptiveto domestic mkt, says executive director K.M.L. Chhabra. Traders saymonthly review of base prices can help reduce volatility of selling pricesin India, which is good for importers and overall trading of palm oil.

KUALA LUMPUR: Satu mekanisme pelaksanaan penggunaan minyak sawit sebagaibiofuel di negara ini kini sedang dirangka sebelum dihantar ke Kabinet,kata Ketua Pengarah Lembaga Minyak Sawit Malaysia (MPOB), Tan Sri Dr YusofBasiron

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 19 (Bernama) -- The Federation of MalaysianManufacturers (FMM) said Tuesday the promotion of the use of natural gasvehicles in the transportation system was most appropriate in view thatMalaysia has large reserves of natural gas.

NEW DELHI, Oct 19 (Bernama) -- The Indian government has clarified thatimported palm oil consignments not meeting the stipulated minimum 500 mgper kg total carotenoids specification would attract 75 percent basiccustoms duty.

10/19/2004 14:58 - An informal meeting of the management of Russia'sfive largest oil-crushing corporations has taken place recently inRostov-on-Don, newspaper Kommersant has informed. The meeting participantshave decided to pursue mutually coordinated pricing policies in purchasingsunflower seeds, the sellers of which raised their prices in hope toobtain overprofits.

COLOMBO, Oct 18 (Bernama) -- Sri Lanka's Plantation Ministry is planningto impose a tax on all palm oil products in the forthcoming budget in aneffort to curb increasing palm oil imports.