Indonesia '05 CPO Output Seen 13.7M MT, Up 8% On Y
KUALA LUMPUR (Dow Jones)--Indonesia's crude palm oil production growthis expected to slow to 8% on year in 2005 from an estimated growth of19.8% in 2004, Milton Ng, managing director of the downstream agribusiness division of Indonesia's Sinar Mas group said Thursday.Ng projected Indonesia's 2005 CPO output at 13.7 million metric tons.Official Indonesian production figures for 2004 are yet to be issued bythe Indonesian epartment of Agriculture, but Ng estimated Indonesiaproduced around 12.7 million tons of palm oil in 2004, up from 10.6million tons in 2003.Speaking at the annual palm oil price outlook conference here, Ng saidhis 2004 estimate is based on data on the country's major producers, palmoil shipments and the utilization of milling and refining capacity."We know that in 2004, growth was extremely good, in the range of 15% to20%," Ng said. "I'm projecting we won't see anymore double digit growththis year."He said there were indications that Indonesian production fell inDecember and January on year while exports in January and February havebeen flat on year."This is the first time that we are seeing production growth flatteningout," he said.He attributed the slowdown in production to hot and dry weather inrecent months.Ng forecast Malaysian palm oil prices to range between MYR1,300 andMYR1,600/ton in the rest of the year.At 0800 GMT, the benchmark May CPO futures contract on Bursa MalaysiaDerivative was at MYR1,393/ton, down MYR11 from Wednesday's close.
