Berita Arkib

8/20/04, CHINA (Oilmandi) - China, the world's top soyabean buyer, hasstruck deals to import more than two million tonnes of the oilseed fromthe new US crop but purchases could slow as Beijing takes steps to tightencredit and limit expansion of crushing capacities, a senior US tradeofficial said.

8/21/04, INDIA (Oilmandi) - CLASSIFICATION disputes are seemingly endemicto edible oils, more so with regard to palm oil.

8/20/2004,TINDIA (THE ECONOMIC TIMES) - With edible oil importerspreferring to set up refineries near ports, West Bengal with its two portsat Kolkata and Haldia, has turned out to be another favourite spot forsetting up greenfield refineries, after Gujarat, Maharashtra, AndhraPradesh and Orissa.

DHAKA, Aug 20 (Bernama) -- Palm oil import in Bangladesh registered asubstantial increase during the last fiscal year (July 2003 -- June 2004)while imports of soyabean oil declined.Dhaka started importing palm oil more than two decades ago and most ofthis edible oils came from Malaysia.According to official statistics available here, Bangladesh imported627,987 tonnes of palm oil in the last fiscal 2003-2004, which was about59 percent of the total imports of edible oil in the country that year.Imports of palm oil increased by about 43 percent compared to previousfiscal 2002-2003.Meanwhile, 365,400 tonnes of soyabean oil was imported during the lastfiscal year, which is about 34 percent of total edible oil imports inBangladesh.Imports of soyabean oil declined by 18 percent compared to that ofprevious fiscal 2002-2003.Bangladesh imported a total of 1,065,330 tonnes of edible oil infiscal year 2003-2004 registering an increase of nine percent.The volume of palm oil imports continued to increase every year and iscurrently dominating Bangladesh's edible oil market."Palm oil's quality and its competitive price compared to that ofsoyabean oil caused rapid increase in palm oil's import and consumption aswell in Bangladesh," said AKM Fakhrul Alam, Country Manager of MalaysianPalm Oil Promotion Council (MPOPC) for Bangladesh.He said that demand of palm oil in Bangladesh market indicates thatthe import and consumption of this edible oil would go up further duringthe current fiscal year 2004-2005.Palm oil is used in Bangladesh both as cooking oil and as aningredient in food processing industries. The use of the oil in both theareas has been increasing steadily.A few of the country's refineries are producing world standard superolein palm oil by adopting developed refining process in their plants."This high quality super olein is being considered as an alternativeto soyabean oil and has a good market in Bangladesh," Fakhrul said.He added that palm oil was always a preferred choice for the foodprocessing industries due to its compatibility as an ingredient in foodprocessing.With the expansion of the food processing industries in the country,palm oil's demand in this sector was also steadily increasing, he said. --BERNAMA

KUALA LUMPUR (Dow Jones)--Asian cash palm oil prices were mixedFriday, with products in Malaysia moving higher due to aggressive buyinginterest from a large trading house.In the Malaysian market, a slew of supply and demand figures wereissued Friday and were considered neutral to bearish, traders said.Earlier Friday, cargo surveyor Intertek Testing Services estimatedMalaysian palm oil exports in the first 20 days of August at 759,623 tons,up 11.1% from the same period in July. The figures were within marketexpectations as speculation was for exports of around 750,000 tons.However, another surveyor SGS (Malaysia) Bhd. reported a disappointingfigure around midday. SGS pegged Aug. 1-20 exports at 725,922 tons, uponly 3.1% from the July 1-20 period.SGS is more closely watched by market participants."The SGS figure is so much lower than Intertek. I expect the market toslowly move down. The main reason why it's higher today is because (atrading company) is bidding for nearby deliveries," a trader said.Traders said once the buying interest from the trading company, whichexports mainly to the Middle East, subsides, the market would be hardpressed to sustain earlier gains.Meanwhile, private crop surveyor Palmis Management Bhd. also issuedsupply and demand figures Friday.Palmis estimated August CPO output around 1.335 million-1.340 millionmetric tons, up from the 1.27 million tons produced in July, tradersfamiliar with the latest Palmis report said.According to traders who obtained the data, Palmis estimated Augustpalm oil exports at 1.165 million-1.170 million tons, up from 1.11 milliontons in July.Palmis pegged end-August stocks at 1.37 million-1.38 million tons, upfrom 1.27 million tons at end-July, traders said.Traders said the figures are unlikely to have much impact on palm oilprices as there were no major revisions from the previous forecast issueda week ago."Production is higher (compared with the previous forecast). Butstocks are unchanged, so overall, the impact is neutral," a trader said.In the cash market, CPO for September shipment was offered atMYR1,525/ton, up MYR5 from Thursday, delivered basis in South Malaysia.RBD palm olein for September shipment was offered at $440/ton, up $5from Thursday.RBD palm oil for September shipment was offered at $430/ton, also up$5.In Indonesia, RBD palm olein in Jakarta was offered at 4,400 rupiah($1=IDR9,205) a kilogram, down IDR25 from Thursday.

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--The American Soybean Association, a U.S.producer group, was informed this week by the U.S. Department ofAgriculture that the potent Asian strain of rust fungus has beendiscovered in Colombia, farther north than ever before in South America, aspokesman for the group said Friday.Bob Callanan, communications director of the American SoybeanAssociation, said the discovery means the fungus spores have "made anadvance towards the United States" past the Equator.A USDA official, speaking on terms of anonymity, confirmed that Asianrust has been discovered in Colombia, north of the Equator.The official would give no other details on the discovery.The USDA's Economic Research Service released a report in Aprilpredicting that the net economic losses from an outbreak of the soybeanyield-slashing Asian rust would range from $640 million to $1.3 billionfor the first year of damage if the fungus reaches the U.S.A spokeswoman with the Colombian Agricultural Institute, the country'sofficial sanitary agency, said Friday that preliminary tests gave noindication that Asian rust had moved into Colombia."A first test ... showed there was no rust," said Angela Neira, of theinstitute's press office. "We're carrying out a second test to confirmthis."Callanan said that despite the news of the fungus' discovery inColombia, first reported Friday by DTN, the American Soybean Associationis telling its members that there is no immediate cause for alarm but thatthey should still remain vigilant for signs of Asian rust.He said it may still be years before the fungus reaches U.S. soybeanfields, but the group is already helping farmers prepare for its arrival.Previously, Asian rust was believed to have infested only fields inBrazil and other countries below the Equator, but the presence of thefungus above the Equator in Colombia "puts it closer to either beingcarried across the Caribbean Sea - airborne - or across the land bridge upthrough Central America," Callanan said.

(19-08-2004) - Malaysia may exempt shipments of crude palm oil (CPO) tooffshore refineries operated by local firms from export tax, CommoditiesMinister Datuk Peter Chin said on August 19.

BUENOS AIRES (Dow Jones)--Argentina exported 284,578 metric tons ofsoyoil in June, or 31% less than the 425,438 tons exported during the samemonth in 2003, the Agriculture Secretariat reported Tuesday.Exports fell as sales to China and India plummeted in June.China, the top buyer of Argentine soyoil, imported 57,100 tons inJune, down 66% from 167,824 a year earlier.Venezuela ranked second in June, accounting for 51,547 tons comparedwith just 9,985 tons a year earlier.India was third with 46,050 tons against 115,544 the previous year.In the first six months of 2004, Argentina exported 2,041,770 tons ofsoyoil, compared with 1,995,144 during the same period a year ago.

Wednesday August 18, 2004 - PETALING JAYA: The Selangor Government willdirect the Department of Environment (DOE) to check on palm oil millslocated along Sungai Selangor which are suspected of illegally dischargingeffluents into the river.

8/18/04, INDIA(Oilmandi) - The import of edible oil in the third quarter(May-July) of the current oil year (November 2003 to October 2004) fell 51per cent to 880,045 tonne compared with 1,778,736 tonne in thecorresponding period last year, according to the Solvent ExtractorsAssociation of India (SEA).

8/18/04 (Oilmandi) - Malaysian crude palm oil rose on Tuesday asspeculators returned to lift the market from lows caused by a drop inprices of rival Chicago soya oil. The benchmark third-month palm oilcontract on the Malaysia Derivatives Exchange, November, closed up 16ringgit at the day’s high of 1,477 ringgit ($388.68) a tonne.

BALI, Indonesia (Dow Jones)--The world's largest soybean producer, theU.S., will likely harvest 2.85 billion bushels of soybeans in the 2004-05crop year, much lower than a forecast last week by the U.S. Department ofAgriculture at 2.88 billion bushes, said Emily French, vice president ofthe Washington, D.C.-based private research firm, Worldperspectives Inc.Speaking to Dow Jones Newswires on the sidelines of the third EastAsia-U.S Agricultural Co-operators' Conference, French said she expectsChina, the world's largest soybean buyer, to import only around 18 millionmetric tons this year, despite a more bullish USDA estimate of more than20 million tons."We see the Chinese demand is not as large as the USDA figure. AndChinese buying will probably have to wait until the whole trading defaultissue is cleaned up, buyers and sellers settle on new contract termsetc.," said French.Earlier in the year, several international trading houses accusedChinese buyers of trying to cancel cargos booked at higher prices,following a sharp drop in the market in the subsequent months.In the corn market, French said the new U.S. crop is likely to reach10.65 billion bushels, much smaller than the USDA's earlier projection ofa record high 10.92 billion bushels."What the USDA projected was probably the best-case scenario, while Isee more downside risk to that number," said French.But China is going to be a net corn importer as early as the firsthalf of 2005 with the country's estimated stocks-to-use ratio dipping to18%, based on USDA figures, French said.The stocks-to-use ratio represents the end-of-the-year stocks as apercentage of full-year consumption."In a mere six years, China has seen that ratio go down from 108% toan estimated 18% at the end of April 2005," French said.