Berita Arkib

BANTING, Mar 30: - Police nabbed two men hours after they had hijacked apalm oil tanker here this morning - thanks to a civic-minded motorist.The passing motorist had witnessed the hijacking and alerted the police.

3/30/2005 Financial Express - The government, with a view to curtailingdependence of vegetable oils, has geared up to promote massive cultivationof palm oil in the country. According to an official document, it hasnoted slow progress in cultivation of oil palm since the launch of theprogramme for Eighth Plan period. The government has expressed concernover forex outgo of about $ 1,800 million a year on account of vegetableoil imports.

30/03/05 JAKARTA (Dow Jones)--Government and industry officials inIndonesia Tuesday sought to downplay concerns that a massive earthquakethat struck overnight may affect the country's agricultural output.In a statement, the Ministry of Agriculture office said it is tooearly to say what impact Monday's earthquake, which struck off the westerncoast of Sumatra island, might have on agriculture output.The agriculture sector accounts for around 15% of Indonesia's grossdomestic product."We haven't received any reports of damage in plantations due to theearthquake," said U.K. Anggoro, director of plantation development at theministry.Industry groups said that while reports of damage - if any - onplantations or the transportation network in North Sumatra are still notavailable, they believe supply of key agricultural commodities such ascoffee, rubber and palm oil will be unaffected."It may have damaged one or two palm oil refineries, but theearthquake is unlikely to have damaged palm plantations," said DeromBangun, chairman of the Indonesian Palm Oil Exporters Association, orGapki.The quake won't have any impact on the country's overall crude palm oiloutput, Derom added.CPO in Medan was traded higher at IDR3,871 a kilogram Tuesday, up fromIDR3,802/kg Thursday, because of a weakening rupiah and strong demand fromthe local market, traders said.So far, the earthquake hasn't affected the supply of CPO fromplantations to Medan, traders added.The epicenter of the 8.7-magnitude quake was 90 kilometers south ofthe island of Simeulue, off Sumatra's western coast and just north ofNias. The quake hit a little before midnight local time and was thelargest aftershock following the9.0-magnitude quake that spawned a deadly tsunami that swept across theIndian Ocean Dec. 26. The quake was felt as far away as Thailand, Malaysiaand Singapore.The Hong Kong Observatory reported that a quake of 5.7 magnitude alsostruck the area Tuesday morning.The Richter scale measurements of the two earthquakes - 9.0 versus 8.7- appear close, but the difference in strength is considerable. As theRichter scale is a logarithmic scale, an earthquake that measures 9.0 is10 times larger than one that measures 8.0.The country's largest producers of crude palm oil and rubber are allbased in North Sumatra province, which accounts for roughly 24% and 20% ofIndonesia's rubber and CPO output, respectively.Shipping activity at Belawan port in Medan hasn't been affected by thequake, an official said."The earthquake caused panic for a while, but it didn't damage anyfacilities at the port," said Amsar, a traffic control official at Belawanport. "Loading and unloading activities are normal."Located 26 kilometers north of Medan, the capital of North Sumatraprovince, Belawan port is the largest port for exports of Indonesia's keycommodities such as crude palm oil, coffee, rubber and tobacco.Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has postponed a plannedvisit Wednesday to Australia and said he would fly to Nias to assess thedamage there."The president would like to find out the extent of the damage andcasualties," presidential spokesman Andi Malarangeng told The AssociatedPress.

30/03/05China Palm Oil Demand Slow; Buyers Cautious(Dow Jones)--Demand for Malaysian palm oil imports from China stillweak as buyers waiting for clearer market direction, say traders inMalaysia. Buyers in China preferring to cover requirements by taking upcargoes available domestically rather than placing fresh orders. "If theybuy directly from here, then it will take time for the oil to reach them.They don't want to be too exposed at this time because price direction isso uncertain," says trader in Malaysia.

March 31 2005 - SABAH, with its vast land available for development,offers investors plenty of opportunities to venture into agriculture.

KOTA KINABALU, March 29 -- (Bernama) -- Golden Hope Plantations Bhd (GHPB)plans to expand its downstream oils and oil fats businesses including itsoleo chemicals business globally, group chief executive officer, DatukSabri Ahmad said Tuesday.

3/28/05 - FRESH concerns are emerging on the global soyabean productionfront with South American crop prospects looking increasingly suspect.

3/28/05China Palm Olein Seen Range-Bound Near-Term(Dow Jones)--RBD palm olein prices in China likely range-bound inshort-term; but higher prices possible in April, May when weathers becomeswarmer, says research house Shanghai Pansun. Weak demand limiting upsideroom for now, but downtrend in stocks due to slower arrival of freshcargoes providing support on downside. Stocks now estimated around 180,000tons. Palm olein in major Chinese ports quoted around CNY4,700-CNY4,850 atend of last week.

3/28/05China and India ARE large consumers of edible oils and their importprogrammes impact world trade in the commodity. India is the world's thirdlargest consumer after China and EU and the market is worth over Rs 50,000crore. It is a lot more in China.

28/03/05 KUALA LUMPUR (Dow Jones)--The U.S. may have little choice but toturn to palm oil in the coming years to help reduce the very healthproblems initially blamed on the Southeast Asian-produced oil, said ascientist at a major European palm oil products maker.

3/28/05 - Here’s a word of caution on the fiercely-growing commodityfutures trading, which often reflects unbridled speculation. According toLamon Rutten, chief, finance risk management and information - commoditiesbranch, UNCTAD, the trend of high trading volumes and low open interest isnot healthy.Fears are that excessive speculation in the domestic commodities futuresmarket may have some impact on the underlying spot market. Over the pastcouple of months, the market has seen high trading volumes coupled withremarkably low open interests, which have reportedly been attributed topunters and circular trading. Low open interest signals the entry and exitof a trader from a futures trade before the close of trading hours on anexchange.Participation in the commodities futures market by large corporates andother institutional players could help check this trend, Rutten told ET.Although it is early days, there are traders and industry watchers whorecall how futures trading was banned over three decades by the governmentdue to excessive speculation. Another neighbour, China, had also moved ina similar fashion a decade ago.The developments in the commodities market which have created a sense ofdisquiet are reflected in a few commodity futures. First, it was guarseedwhich recorded a daily volume of Rs 50 crore in the first week of July ’04. Volumes then soared to Rs 1,700 crore daily during the first week ofSeptember, a hefty growth of 3,300%.However, during the same period, the open interest in guarseed increasedfrom 27,500 tonne to 133,500 tonne, a growth of only 385%. Recently, thedaily trading volume in jeera zoomed from Rs 13.7 crore on February 18 toRs 279.5 crore on February 24, ’05, - a whopping 1,934% growth. Incontrast, during the same period, open interest in jeera increased from4,344 tonnes to only 8,979 tonnes - a moderate 106.7% rise.The spot-to-futures trading ratio is also abnormally high. The annual spotmarket for jeera is worth around Rs 1,000 crore and the average daily spottrading is estimated to be less than Rs 5 crore. The volume of Rs 300crore traded on national exchanges on February 24 was more than 60 timesthe daily volume in the spot market.S Sundareshan, chairman of the market regulator for commodities - ForwardMarkets Commission (FMC) - declined comment on the issue.Some trade experts term low open interests and high volume as "marketmaking" by the exchanges. The September ’05 mild steel contract on NCDEXhas zero open interests since March 11 to 22, though Rs 3,500 crore ofsteel has been traded. The exchanges, however, have been silent on the"market making" issue.According NCDEX’s chief economist Madan Sabnabis, it would take some timebefore any comparison with the benchmark global exchanges could be carriedout.Globally, trading volume and open interests go hand-in-hand on benchmarkexchanges like, Nymex, IPE, CBOT and NYBOT. Spot to futures multipliersare usually within 50. Only in the case of gold and silver, it hasexceeded the threshold.Jignesh Shah, managing director, MCX, said that participation of onlyspeculators could distort the price discovery process through futurestrading. Kailash Gupta, managing director, NMCE, said, instead of volumes,national exchanges like, NCDEX and MCX should focus on quality of tradingin the initial years.Globally, trading volume and open interests go hand-in-hand on benchmarkexchanges like, Nymex, IPE, CBOT and NYBOT. Spot to futures multipliersare usually within 50. Only in the case of gold and silver, it hasexceeded the threshold.

Monday, March 28 2005 - FPG Oleochemicals Sdn Bhd, a 50-50 jointventure between Felda Palm Industries Sdn Bhd and Procter & Gamble (P&G)of the US, is set to turn its plant in the Kuantan Port Industrial Areainto the biggest oleochemical complex in the world.