Berita Arkib

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.

KUALA LUMPUR, March 3 (Bernama) -- The three-month Kuala Lumpur InterbankOffered Rates (KLIBOR) futures contracts on Bursa Malaysia Derivativeswere dominated by strip trade amidst steady cash market Thursday, dealerssaid.

KUALA LUMPUR, March 3 (Bernama) -- Malaysia is the leading trading partnerof the Philippines in vegetable oil, said chairman of United CoconutAssociations of the Philippines, Henry T. Lao.

KUALA LUMPUR (Dow Jones)--The Malaysian government hopes to issueregulations on biodiesel by the middle of this year, Peter Chin Sahkui,minister for plantation industries and commodities, said Thursday.Speaking at the annual price outlook conference organized by BursaMalaysia Derivatives, Chin said the government has agreed to look into theuse of palm oil diesel and is in the midst of deciding whether to exportthe product or use it locally."We are working on the infrastructure and regulations that need to beput up. I hope it will be somewhere in the middle of this year that we canhave biodiesel regulations put up," Chin said.Biodiesel is produced from various vegetable oils. Malaysia is planningto use its abundant supplies of palm oil to produce biodiesel.With fuel prices rising, the government has been actively consideringthe use of biodiesel as a fuel substitute.The plan is to blend the product with regular diesel for use inautomobiles or export it as methyl ester.The industry has been looking forward to the government's plans forbiodiesel, as production of biodiesel is expected to help reduce domesticpalm oil stocks and support prices.Chin didn't make any price forecasts for the year or provide palm oilproduction estimates.

Friday March 4, 2005 - THE Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) has allocatedRM40mil for the setting up of a methyl ester production plant in Labu,Negri Sembilan.

Tuesday March 1, 2005 - KUALA LUMPUR - TH Group Bhd said its MultimediaSuper Corridor status subsidiary iTech Worldwide Sdn Bhd has received aletter of award from Minamas Plantation to supply and implement its eFLEXPlantware and Millware solutions in the latter's plantations and palm oilmills in Indonesia.

March 1, 2005Malaysia:  Palm Oil Yields High, Rainfall VariableRainfall in Malaysian palm oil regions was above normal during the fourthquarter of 2004 (Oct.-Dec.).  It averaged 335 millimeters per monthcompared to normal rainfall of 291 millimeters.  For the past 10 quarters,5 quarters have had above normal rainfall and 5 quarters below normal;consequently, the outlook for the remainder of the 2004/05 (Oct.-Sept.)crop is for near normal yields.  Yield should be slightly below normal inthe first quarter of 2005 (Jan.-Mar.) but above normal in the second andthird quarters.   Palm oil yields in Malaysia were higher than anticipated in the fourthquarter of 2004, coming in relatively high at 1.14 tons per hectare.  Thisis higher than the 1.05 tons per hectare that yields averaged for thefourth quarter during the previous five years.  The higher than expectedyield for the fourth quarter of 2004 pushes the projected yield for thetotal 2004/05 marketing year (Oct.-Sept.) to 4.00 tons per hectareaccording to the Malaysian Rainfall Regression Model (MRRM).  Three monthsago, the MRRM model was projecting 2004/05 yield at 3.79 tons per hectare.

[LatelineNews: 2005-2-25] SHANGHAI - Faced with too many crops and notenough oil, Asian governments are promoting biofuels as a way to cutcostly fuel imports.Ethanol and biodiesel can be more expensive than the oil they replace butthis is a price some governments are willing to bear to ensure an outletfor crop surpluses.

28/02/2005 - Supplies for a range of vegetable oils are set to improvethis year on stronger commodity yields and India cuts edible oil importsfor last month.

Friday February 25 NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Oilseed output in India, theworld's largest edible oil importer, is likely to surpass the previousyear's record production of 25.1 million tonnes, an annual report card ofthe economy said on Friday.

Monday February 28 2005 - A Japan-Bangladesh joint venture company toproduce bio-diesel, an alternative to petroleum fuel, from unused wastematerials and by-products by using the latest Japanese technology.

28/02/05Malaysian Cash Palm Oil Up; Trades Reported(Dow Jones)--Malaysian cash palm oil prices higher in tandem with CPOfutures, soyoil futures markets. RBD palm olein for April/May/June lastoffered +$5 at $397.50/ton. Trades reported at $397.50, $400 earlier; butwith CPO futures now off highs, lack of bullish surprises from exportdata, cash market buyers retreating to sidelines, traders say. Players nowwatching to see if benchmark CPO futures contract can stay above MYR1,400psychological level by end of the day.