MARKET DEVELOPMENT
Form partnerships for overseas palm oil ventures
Form partnerships for overseas palm oil ventures
24/4/07 (Business Times) - KARACHI: THE Government wants more partnerships among Malaysian palm oil players in their overseas venture that bring about mutual profits.
"When alone, it is harder to compete. But when Malaysians work with each other through partnerships, they are able to tap into each other's strength, optimise on resource use, reap cost savings and maximise profits," Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Peter Chin Fah Kui said.
He was speaking to Business Times after visiting the joint venture projects between a Pakistani company and a consortium of Malaysian companies in Port Qasim, located 50km from Karachi.
So far, Malaysia's Felda has been playing the lead role in Karachi with three major projects of combined investments of RM155 million.
The first joint venture in 1995, between Pakistan's Westbury Group of Companies, Malaysia's Federal Land Development Authority (Felda), Kuala Lumpur Kepong Bhd (KLK) and IOI Group, was for a storage tank farm of edible oils at Port Qasim.
About RM25 million is being invested in these storage tanks to expand the capacity to 100,000 tonnes by the December, from 78,000 tonnes currently.
"This is the first and only tank farm in Pakistan that is ISO 9001:2000-certified. There are now 32 tanks.
"We'll be addding in 12 more by the end of this year," Westbury chairman Basheer Janmohammed said.
The second collaboration took the form of a modern edible oil refinery that can process 240,000 tonnes of palm oil and 60,000 tonnes of soya oil, sunflower oil, canola oil and cottonseed oil a year.
Westbury, Felda and KLK have invested RM60 million in the refinery, which started operations in July last year.
The third joint project between Felda and Westbury involved a liquid cargo terminal at Port Qasim.
More than RM70 million has been pumped into this infrastructure, which is expected to start operations by January 2008.
"Port Qasim handled 80 per cent of all palm oil that is being shipped into Pakistan. Our liquid cargo terminal is specifically designed to dock vessels up to 35,000 deadweight tonnes.
"There are four pipelines to handle four million tonnes of liquid cargo at a go," Basheer said.
The Malaysian Minister was leading a 50-member delegation to Karachi from April 17 to 21 to participate in the Malaysia-Pakistan Palm Oil Trade Seminar (POTS).
This was the third edition of the POTS series organised by the Malaysian Palm Oil Council and Malaysian Palm Oil Board to generate greater global recognition of the nutritional benefits of palm oil.
While the first and second editions were held in Shanghai and Kuala Lumpur, the fourth will be held in Cairo, Eygpt.
"When alone, it is harder to compete. But when Malaysians work with each other through partnerships, they are able to tap into each other's strength, optimise on resource use, reap cost savings and maximise profits," Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Peter Chin Fah Kui said.
He was speaking to Business Times after visiting the joint venture projects between a Pakistani company and a consortium of Malaysian companies in Port Qasim, located 50km from Karachi.
So far, Malaysia's Felda has been playing the lead role in Karachi with three major projects of combined investments of RM155 million.
The first joint venture in 1995, between Pakistan's Westbury Group of Companies, Malaysia's Federal Land Development Authority (Felda), Kuala Lumpur Kepong Bhd (KLK) and IOI Group, was for a storage tank farm of edible oils at Port Qasim.
About RM25 million is being invested in these storage tanks to expand the capacity to 100,000 tonnes by the December, from 78,000 tonnes currently.
"This is the first and only tank farm in Pakistan that is ISO 9001:2000-certified. There are now 32 tanks.
"We'll be addding in 12 more by the end of this year," Westbury chairman Basheer Janmohammed said.
The second collaboration took the form of a modern edible oil refinery that can process 240,000 tonnes of palm oil and 60,000 tonnes of soya oil, sunflower oil, canola oil and cottonseed oil a year.
Westbury, Felda and KLK have invested RM60 million in the refinery, which started operations in July last year.
The third joint project between Felda and Westbury involved a liquid cargo terminal at Port Qasim.
More than RM70 million has been pumped into this infrastructure, which is expected to start operations by January 2008.
"Port Qasim handled 80 per cent of all palm oil that is being shipped into Pakistan. Our liquid cargo terminal is specifically designed to dock vessels up to 35,000 deadweight tonnes.
"There are four pipelines to handle four million tonnes of liquid cargo at a go," Basheer said.
The Malaysian Minister was leading a 50-member delegation to Karachi from April 17 to 21 to participate in the Malaysia-Pakistan Palm Oil Trade Seminar (POTS).
This was the third edition of the POTS series organised by the Malaysian Palm Oil Council and Malaysian Palm Oil Board to generate greater global recognition of the nutritional benefits of palm oil.
While the first and second editions were held in Shanghai and Kuala Lumpur, the fourth will be held in Cairo, Eygpt.