Berita Arkib

Indonesia's palm oil exports may fall to 3.9 million tonnes in 2001 from4.15 million tonnes last year, hampered by lower yields and a strongerrupiah, an industry official said on Monday."I am afraid that we won't be able to reach a target of 4.2 milliontonnes. (Exports) may fall to 3.9 million tonnes," Derom Bangun, chairmanof the Indonesian Palm Oil Producers Association (Gapki) told Reuters onthe sidelines of a palm oil conference.Bangun said palm oil production for the world's second-largest producerafter Malaysia had declined in the first half of the year. January-Mayexports were estimated at 1.6 million tonnes, down 10 percent from thesame period last year because of lower yields, he said.The appreciating rupiah, quoted at 8,535/8,575 to the dollar at 0816GMT on Monday, was also discouraging exports.Bangun said Indonesia's palm oil production may fall short of thetarget of 7.2 million tonnes this year because of security problems andweather problems if the drought causing El Nino phenomenon returns thisyear.Indonesia produced around 6.5 million tonnes of palm oil in 2000.Consumption is expected to reach 3.7 million tonnes this year."Security in some areas is not perfect yet," said Bangun, referring towidespread looting of fresh fruit bunches in plantation areas during theeconomic crisis."Weather experts are talking about El Nino. If that happens, there willbe a shortage in production," he said.Marked by an abnormal warming of waters in the eastern Pacific Ocean,El Nino wreaks devastation in weather patterns around the Pacific Rim andcan also affect the number of storms in the Atlantic hurricane season."Production in the first half of the year only constitutes between 85to 95 percent of the estimates. Many firms are oversold," said Bangun.He said many ships were also waiting at the ports as they could notleave for their destinations because of a shortage in crude palm oil.

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 21 (Bernama) -- Joint-venture opportunity is animportant tool to further expand growth in the palm oil market, saidMalaysian Palm Oil Promotion Council's (MPOPC) head of marketing, FaudzyAsrafudeen Sayed Mohamed.

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 21 (Reuters) - Malaysia's palm oil output was estimatedat 972,000 tonnes in August, up eight percent from July, private cropforecaster Ivan Wong said on Tuesday. Wong forecast end-August stocks at900,000 tonnes, down from 921,825 tonnes at the end of July. Exports inAugust were estimated at 860,000-865,000 tonnes against 864,389 tonnes inJuly. Malaysian palm oil supply-demand estimates/projections as of August21, 2001 (in '000 tonnes):

Malaysia's palm oil prices may bounce beyond the 1,200 ringgit level laterthis year on bad weather in the United States and heavier demand frommajor buyers like India and China, an industry official said on Tuesday."I think it (the price) will stay around 1,200 ringgit. If the U.S.(soybean) crop has problems, then it may go up further," Ahmad Ibrahim,marketing director of the state Malaysian Palm Oil Promotion Council(MPOPC), told Reuters in an interview.Malaysia's palm oil futures hit 1,315 ringgit ($346.05) a tonne --their highest level in 22 months -- on August 8 (third-month basis),driven by concern that supplies may be hit in coming months by adverseweather.But prices have gradually eased since then with some traders sayingrecent persistent rains would instead boost output from the world'slargest palm oil producer.By midday on Tuesday, the benchmark third-month November contract wasquoted 21 ringgit higher at 1,136 ringgit ($298.95) a tonne as traderscovered their positions after Monday's sharp drop.Ahmad said Monday's 71 ringgit slide was a correction and he expectedprices to trend higher now, particularly as dry weather in the U.S. mayaffect the soybean crop from the world's largest producer, which in turncould further boost palm oil prices.Palm oil is soyoil's direct competitor."What happened is that the increase in (the palm oil) price was toofast. Now it's being corrected," Ahmad said."But we see in the last few weeks, the weather is not very conducive inthe U.S. for a good (soybean) crop."Ahmad said India, the world's largest edible oil importer, was also inthe market for palm oil ahead of the Diwali Hindu festival of lights inNovember, while China would increase its intake when it joined the WorldTrade Organisation (WTO).Malaysian government officials have said China's palm oil import quotacould stand at up to 2.88 million tonnes in 2005, compared with 1.4million tonnes in 2001.India was Malaysia's main palm oil buyer in 2000, taking 2.03 milliontonnes.Ahmad said population growth and an improvement in purchasing power wasexpected to boost global palm oil consumption to more than 16.5 milliontonnes this year from 15.1 million in 2000.Demand for vegetable fats was also rising because people were morehealth conscious and were shunning animal fats, he said."Many countries are very price sensitive, like Bangladesh. They haveincreased their buying of palm oil tremendously this year," he added.Bangladesh imports could reach up to 300,000 tonnes this year comparedwith less than 100,000 tonnes last year, he said.Malaysia and Indonesia, the world's second largest palm oil producer,account for more than 85 percent of global palm oil exports. About 60percent of palm oil exports came from Malaysia and 25 percent fromIndonesia, Ahmad said.Malaysia's palm oil production is expected to increase 3.4 percent to11.2 million tonnes in 2001. Indonesia's output is projected to reach 7.2million tonnes this year compared with 6.5 million tonnes in 2000.(US$1 = 3.8 ringgit)

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 21 (Bernama) -- The second day of the International PalmOil Congress (2001 PIPOC) gets under way at Hotel Istana and Mutiara KualaLumpur here Tuesday.

The US Oilseed industry is slowly getting out of its slump as oilseedprocessors report improved margins. Higher demand for meals and oils andrecent crushing rationalization have improved industry fundamentals.Producers are optimistic that the rest of 2001 and 2002 will show gains.Over the last year, the US soybean processing industry has been reducingits total available capacity because of depressed processing marginsresulting from oversupplied soybean oil stocks. But with the results ofcrushing capacity rationalization and the increase in soybean meal demand,crush margins have now been slowly improving over the last several months,says John Ferris, market analyst and managing editor at the JacobsenPublishing Company, which provides oilseeds, oils and fats market analysesin the business-to-business Web site by-product.com.The soybean crush for June was up 8.6 percent from the year-ago period,but down 3.3 percent from May at 3.85 million tons, according to the USCensus Bureau. The crush figure is higher than expected from tradersexpectations at 3.47 million tons to 3.48 million tons. The cottonseedcrush is at 231,000 tons compared to May s 217,000 tons. Meanwhile,soybean oil stocks at the end of June were down 3 percent from May at 2.57billion pounds, while soybean meal stocks were up 18 percent from May at301,340 tons.Soybean crushing margins improved about 10 cents per bushel to 85 cents ina seasonally slow period as moves to reduce industry capacity haveimproved returns for this battered business, says a Prudential Securitiesanalyst. With decreased domestic crashing capacity, meal and oil pricesare up due to better demand and [with] less competing oil supplies,crushing margins can even move to above $1 per bushel in the fall, thefirst time in about four years, the analyst adds.The outlook for the remainder of this year and next appears positive assoft seed supply, such as sunflower and rapeseed, tighten, and demand forsoybean oil and meal is projected to increase. There has been a lot oftalk about significant demand increases for US soybean products andgreater dependency on soybeans in general, says Holger Matthey, oilseedsanalyst at the Food & Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI) atIowa State University. Some in the industry are saying that global supplyfundamentals for soybeans and products have tightened, and demand isstrong. The outlook is strong, especially for oils for next year, Mr.Matthey adds.Greater use of vegetable oils in renewable fuels will also help, says ADM.Also, China s entry in the World Trade Organization is another factor thatcould boost agricultural trade. China had historically been a largeimporter of US soybean oil. However, it dramatically cut back vegetableoil imports as the country built up its own oilseed processing industryover the past two to three years, notes Mr. Ferris. That was one keyfactor in ultimately forcing the US crashing industry to rationalize itscapacity, he explains.

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 21 (Bernama) -- There are still many opportunities forthe palm oil industry to enhance its environmental profile andperformance, WWF (World Wildlife Federation) Malaysia representative, TeohCheng Hai said at the 2001 PIPOC here on Tuesday.

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 21 (Bernama) -- Strong demand and reduced stock levelwill enable palm oil prices to remain in the positive direction for thenext few months.

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 21 (Bernama) -- Palm oil could not afford to stagnatewithout increasing its yield and therefore efforts must be made tostrengthen management and research so that cutting edge technologies couldbe adopted as the best practices.

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 21 (Bernama) -- Malaysian Palm Oil Promotion Council's(MPOPC) director of marketing and promotions, Dr Ahmad Ibrahim, isconfident that palm oil consumption worldwide will continue to increase.

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 20 (Bernama) -- One of the difficult challenges faced bythe palm oil industry when it comes to marketing, is the consumers'negative perception regarding the oils nutritional aspects.

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 20 (Bernama) -- The government will abolish the fivepercent export duty for semi-processed palm oil products (first stage andsecond stage) effective Sept 1, said Primary Industries Minister DatukSeri Dr Lim Keng Yaik.