Berita Arkib

WASHINGTON, Jan 14 (Reuters) - U.S. Agriculture Department said on Mondayfavorable weather in key crop-growing regions has positioned Argentina toproduce a huge soybean harvest."(Argentina's) weather pattern to date has been nearly ideal, supportingrapid growth and development of the crop," USDA's Foreign AgriculturalService said.Last week, USDA projected 2001/02 soybean crop at a record 42.5 milliontonnes, up 1 million tonnes from December's estimate. USDA said somesoybean-growing regions received below average rainfall from Octoberthrough December, "but moisture accumulations have kept pace with orexceeded crop requirements to date."Areas of concerns are limited to western Santa Catarina and Rio Grande doSul. USDA said rainfall was needed in these areas to prevent crop stress.On Monday, worries about dry Brazilian soy crop weather boosted soybeanfutures at the Chicago Board of Trade. Soybean futures for March deliveryclosed up 3-3/4 cents at $4.46-3/4 per bushel.Independent Brazilian forecaster Somar forecast lingering dry weatheracross Brazil's southern soybean growing region. However, rain could reachRio Grande after Jan. 22, Somar said. In Parana, another southern state,rain was expected at the end of the week, while rains were seen falling inthe center-west, Somar said.

JAKARTA, Jan 15 (Reuters) - Indonesia's Trade and Industry Ministry saidthe base price for crude palm oil (CPO) and its by-products would remainunchanged for another month. "There's no change. It is extended becausethere's no significant change at the international market compared tolast month," an official at the ministry told Reuters. The current baseprice, used to calculate export taxes, will remain valid until February12.The country currently imposes a three percent tax on CPO and palm kerneland a one percent tax on refined, bleached and deodorised (RBD) palm oil,RBD palm olein and crude olein. Indonesia levies the tax to control theflow of palm oil exports, which usually rise sharply when the rupiahweakens and international prices increase.The rupiah was quoted at 10,390/10,400 against the dollar by 0400 GMT.The following table shows the base prices for palm oil and itsby-products:

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 14 (Bernama) -- The Malaysian commodity industry needs atotal restructuring that would benefit the smallholders, said PrimaryIndustries minister Datuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik.

Tuesday, January 15, 2002 (The star) - MALAYSIA External Trade DevelopmentCorp (Matrade) is organising Malaysia’s participation in the 35th CairoInternational Fair (CIF 2002) in Egypt from March 20–29.Matrade said in a statement that it was also organising the 30th TripoliInternational Trade Fair (TITF 2002) for Malaysia from April 2–12 inLibya.At both fairs, Malaysia’s pavilion will feature a diverse range ofproducts and services, including automotive parts and components, consumerelectrical and electronic products, food products and beverages, palm oil,office furniture, machinery and transport equipment.Others to be featured are pharmaceutical and beauty products, computer andtelecommunications equipment, chemicals, rubber and plastic products,construction and engineering, education, medical and healthcare.Matrade said Malaysia’s participation was aimed at diversifying thecountry’s exports to new potential markets in North Africa, which includedAlgeria, Libya, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia and Western Sahara, besides Egyptand Libya.It said participation in these trade fairs would provide opportunities forMalaysian companies to reach out to 183 million people in the region, withan average gross domestic product (GDP) of RM18,365 for the year 2000.Malaysia’s total trade with the North African region in 2000 amounted toRM1.3bil, of which 85% or RM1.1bil came from Malaysia’s exports to theregion.“The potential is still enormous as this export value is only 0.52% to theregion’s total import of RM211.3bil in 2000,” Matrade said.Companies interested in participating in the exhibitions can contactMatrade’s Ishak or Silmi at 03-2694-7259. — Bernama

Wednesday, January 16, 2002 (The Star) - MALAYSIA Derivatives Exchange Bhd(Mdex) said the commission rates for all Mdex contracts had been madefully negotiable from Dec 28 last year in line with the amendments to itsguidelines.According to a statement from Mdex, the rates are now fully negotiable toenhance the competitiveness of the derivatives market.Prior to Dec 28, KLSE CI futures and KLSE CI options were charged minimumcommissions of RM50 per contract, while crude palm oil and three-monthKlibor futures commissions were already fully negotiable, the statementnoted.In addition, the clearing commission rates, shared commission ratesbetween the broker representative and its trading members, and sharescommission rates between trading members and institutions had been madefully negotiable with effect from Dec 28, Mdex said. – AFX

16 January,2002 (Business Times) - GAINS made by plantation stocks overthe past few days are likely to be sustained as the upswing in crude palmoil (CPO) prices is expected to lift share prices of companies such as IOICorp Bhd, PPB Oil Palms Bhd, and Kuala Lumpur Kepong Bhd (KLK).

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 11 - Our final estimate on CPO production in Decembershows on upward revision of 30,000 tonnes to 940,000 tonnes. More dataavailable warranted upward revision on the crop in the East Coast regionof Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah, both major producing areas that receivedheavy rainfall in the last 7-10 days of December.Basically there were more crop on the palms than expected. And despitethe wet weather and floods, the overall oil extraction rate (OER) at anestimated 19.4 percent only dropped slightly or not as much as expectedand was also slightly higher than the rate in December 2000 when therewere no reports of floods. CPO output declined an estimated 11.7 percentcompared to November. Production fell around 14 percent in PeninsularMalaysia and eight percent in East Malaysia, For the whole of 2001production in the country expanded 8.8 percent to 11.8 million tonnes.The estimate on palm oil offtake in December remains unchanged at 1.11million tonnes. Concomitant with the revision in output, the estimate onend-December stocks of palm oil is raised to 1.14 million tonnes. Thisrepresents a decline of 155,000 tonnes from November. Compared to a yearearlier, stockswere down around 280,000 tonnes. In contrast to the substantial drawdownin palm oil stocks, stocks of PKO remained at a burdensome level. Decemberrepresents the third consecutive month in which PKO stocks remainedstagnant at or near record high level of around 360,000 tonnes. Totalstocks of PK/PKO, oil basis, are estimated at just above 400,000 tonnes orsome 5,000 tonnes lower than November. Compared to December 2000, stockswere up by around 80,000 tonnes. Production of PK in December declined27,000 tonnes or nine percent to an estimated 289,000 tonnes. Given thecontrasting stocks situation between palm oil - basically CPO - and PKO,it is no surprise that while the average price of CPO in PeninsularMalaysia rose 54.50 ringgit to 1,113 ringgit in December, the price of PKand PKO were hardly changed at 494.50 ringgit and 1,027.50 ringgitrespectively.Consequently, the discount of PKO to CPO widened to 85.5 ringgit inDecember from 30.5 ringgit in November and 10 ringgit in October. Inrecent days the spread has widened to 100 ringgit - 112.50 ringgit. CPOprice averaged 900 ringgit last year, down 97 ringgit or neatly 10 percentfrom 2000. PK price fared much worse, dropping 280 ringgit or 37 percent.After posting gains of 43-50 ringgit in the first-three days of thenew year, CPO futures advanced further early this week. Follow-throughupward momentum along with other chart-driven forces propelled price 57-51ringgit higher in active trade in the first-two days of this week. Settingthe pace in the global vegoils market and at times displaying independentstrength, the sustained runup was also bolstered by price of other majoroils which tried to catch up. On Tuesday the March futures contract rose33 ringgit to an intraday high of 1,287 ringgit before profit-taking alongwith commercial selling trimmed the gains to just 13 ringgit and below the1,250 ringgit mark at the close. Lagging cash values coupled with lack ofvisible fresh Chinese buying plus market talk the release of import quotasmight be delayed to February also had a restraining impact on speculativebuying interest.The market retreated and slipped into the red in the last two dayswhen it became evident bulk shipments from Malaysia would drop to wellbelow 300,000 tonnes in January 1-10. Yesterday March futures slipped 13ringgit to 1,218 ringgit and brought losses over two days to 29 ringgit.Our current projection of a 100,000 tonnes drop in palm oil exports thismonth is premised chiefly on a large decline in shipments to China. Evenif China were to release the quotas in the next week or so, it is unlikelyto result in a rush in shipments in late January/early February.The soya market in the United States (U.S.) and South America must beclosely monitored in the weeks and months ahead. This applies particularlyfor export sales of SBO for the April-June quarter. Argentina has repeggedthe peso to 1.40 to the dollar but the develuation of nearly 30 percent isunlikely to be sustained. Argentina farmers/exporters who hold back beyondthis month in selling for fear further develuation and/or inflation risklosing overseas markets. With the Argentina government in desperate needfor revenue, export duties/taxes may also be imposed or raised in the nearfuture.(The opinions expressed in this article represent the views of theauthor only. They should not be seen as necessarily reflecting the viewsof Reuters)

11 January, 2002 (Oil World) - Vegetable oil imports are rising sharplythis season as a consequence of a pronounced decline in domesticproduction, mainly of sun oil. Combined imports of soybean oil and sun oilare seen reaching about 425 Thd T this season, an increase of 160 Thd T or60% from a year ago. We expect that soybean oil will cover the bulk ofthis increase whereas lack of sufficient availabilities and the stillunusually large price premiums of sun oil will probably limit imports to150-160 Thd T this season. Sun oil imports were up sharply from a year agoat an estimated 58 Thd T in Oct/Dec 2001. Due to the lowered tariffbarrier and the high preference for sun oil on the domestic market, Turkeybecame the world's largest sun oil importer recently. This furthertightened the available supplies for other traditional importers such asIndia, Egypt and Algeria. Based on preliminary export information ,soybean oil imports were boosted to around 90 Thd T last quarter, of which57 Thd T from the U.S. and the remainder from Argentina.

11 January, 2002 (Oil World)

Date Posted: 1/11/2002The American Soybean Association (ASA) was disturbed to learn from a newsarticle that it was working with the Malaysian Palm Oil Promotion Council(MPOPC) to develop a branded margarine product since there is no suchjoint effort.ASA Chief Executive Officer Stephen Censky said, "The ASA is not engagedin any joint collaborative efforts with the Malaysian Palm Oil PromotionCouncil, and is not involved in any efforts to develop a soy-palm blendedproduct of any kind."The news article, published in a Jan. 4, 2002, Business Times (Malaysia)via NewsEdge Corporation article, was based on an interview with MPOPCChief Executive Officer Datuk Haron Siraj.When contacted this week by ASA Southeast Asia Regional Director JohnLindblom, Haron said he recognized the article was inaccurate and he saidthat the reporter had misinterpreted what he said. Haron told Lindblomthat the margarine product was developed by a U.S. company with input fromMPOPC. Haron said he had already contacted the newspaper about theinaccuracy.ASA is a membership organization that represents 25,000 U.S. soybeanproducers.

Chemical Business NewsBase: Chemical Market Reporter via NewsEdgeCorporation : 12/17/2001The supply/demand balance for glycerine is improving following a reductionin production of fatty chemicals and biodiesel. Glycerine is a co-productof biodiesel. Prices are rising, due to the tightening supply situation,particularly in Asia and Europe. There is strong demand for high end useof glycerine in food, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. This balances fallingdemand for industrial applications such as alkyd resins and polyetherpolyols which are down 1%/y and 1.5%/y respectively. The glycerine marketis growing by 1.9%/ y. US demand in 2000 was 537 M pounds (+ 20% on 1999).Procter and Gamble is expanding its glycerine refining capacity.

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 11 (Bernama) -- Sri Lanka Rubber Research Insititutedirector Dr L.M.K Tillekeratne says his comments published early this yearthat replanting rubber estates with oil palm without serious scientificstudy could damage the environment was only applicable to the Sri Lankasituation.