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28 March 2002 (OIL WORLD WEEKLY). Today’s US planting intentions report shows a surprising decline in thisyear’s soybean area to only 73.0 million acres, down by 1.6 Mn fromaverage expectations and down by 1.1 Mn acres from last year. This pluslower March 1 US soybean stocks should support prices in the near tomedium term.

Sebagai sebuah badan penyelidikan dan pembangunan serta pelesenan danpemantauan, MPOB sangat aktif dalam menyedia dan membentang kertaskerjadan laporan, sama ada di dalam dan di luar negeri berhubung industri sawitMalaysia. Dengan itu penyelarasan perangkaan dalam semua laporan-laporanyang dikeluarkan oleh MPOB sangatlah penting.

KUALA LUMPUR, Fri. 30 March 2002 (NSTP) — The National Association ofSmallholders wants a government agency or company to be set up to buy,grade and process palm oil produced by smallholders and extend advisoryservices to them.

PARIS 03/27/2002 (Reuters) : EU rapeseed production is seen rebounding in2002, buoyed by a rise in sowings in Germany and generally favourable cropconditions, analysts and traders said.A French oilseeds analyst said he expected the EU to harvest 9.75 milliontonnes of rapeseed in 2002.That would be up 840,000 tonnes, or 9.4 percent, from Hamburg-basednewsletter Oil World's recent estimate of the 2001 EU rapeseed crop.In France analysts said winter rapeseed had benefited from mild weather inrecent weeks. A year ago heavy rains undermined the crop."So far, so good," said Fabien Lagarde of the French technical oilseedscentre Cetiom. "Rapeseed crops are growing well everywhere."Despite a slight drop in French winter rapeseed sowings, Lagarde and otheranalysts expected the 2002 rapeseed crop to rise to around 3.2 milliontonnes from 2.9 million last season.In Germany, analysts reported rain damage in March but still hoped for abigger crop following a jump in sowings."It is still hard to judge the impact from any rain damage on the harvestas plantings are up 13 percent on last year, (but) we are still lookingfor a larger crop this year," a trader said.Oil World has pegged the coming rapeseed crop in Germany at 4.35 milliontonnes, up from 4.168 million in 2001.It rained constantly in Germany in March, which damages crops on poorlydrained soils in the northern regions of Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holsteinand Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.But another analyst stressed that the damage had been isolated and thatthe crop would likely be up on the year.In Britain, the area fell slightly but the drop was seen largely offset byfavourable weather.Plantings were thriving almost too well, agronomists said, with little orno disease seen."The crops look quite good, the disease levels are relatively low andwe're probably now just one or two weeks off starting to flower onrapeseed," said John Garstang of leading crop consultants ADAS."If anything, they're probably a bit thick and there may be some problemswith some of the crop heads falling," he added.British rapeseed output this year was seen at 1.2 million tonnes, justabove last year's 1.13 million, Garstang said.According to the latest data released by Britain's Department forEnvironment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), British farmers had plantedrapeseed on 341,000 hectares by December 3, 2001, down from 345,000 halast year.-Reuters

JAKARTA, March 20 (Asia Pulse) - Malaysia and Indonesia have a received aboost in crude palm oil exports following strong demand in the worldmarket.Malaysia and Indonesia are the largest and second largest producers ofthat commodity in the world.Growing demand such as from China, India, the European Union, the UnitedStates and Pakistan has pushed up the prices and boosted exports, amarketing official of state plantation companies said Tuesday.Stocks are dwindling fast causing an increase in prices on the domesticmarket, said Bagas Angkasa, an executive of the joint marketing office ofstate-owned plantation companies PT PN.Bagas said apart from dwindling stock, the price on the domestic marketrose after the visit of an Indonesian team to China to promote sales ofCPO.He said the rupiah strengthening curbed the price rise on the domesticmarket but the effect of price increase in the export market was stronger.Analysts said profit taking and shrinking stocks of edible oils such as inIndia pushed up the prices in international markets.- (ANTARA)

(The opinions expressed in this article represent the view of leadingpalm oil market analyst Ivan Wong. They should not be seen as necessarilyreflecting the views of Reuters)

22 March 2002 (OIL WORLD WEEKLY)

28 March, 2002 (Business Times)CHINA has already made its presence in the local palm oil marketunannounced to avoid sending upward pressure on prices.Traders said China deliberately pulled the move to capitalise on currentpalm oil prices which are hovering hover between RM1,100 a tonne to andRM1,150 a tonne or risk buying at higher prices later on.“The Chinese Government is a smart marketeer as it knows prices will rallyonce its intention to enter the market is made known,” a trader toldBusiness Times in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.According to the Malaysian Palm Oil Board’s website China had in Januaryand February bought 44,848 tonnes and 89,411 tonnes of Malaysia’s palm oilrespectively.China, Malaysia’s third biggest buyer last year at 1.28 million tonnes haspledged to buy 2.4 million tonnes of palm oil following its formal entryinto the World Trade Organisation on December 12 last year.The amount is higher by one million tonnes from its traditional annualpurchase of 1.4 million tonnes.The industry had speculated that China would initiate its palm oilpurchase soon following the expansion of its import volume.Traders have widely speculated that China would start on its buying spreeas early as January, a move that has not been made till yesterday.China’s State Development and Planning Commission was supposed to announceabout ten authorised importers from the private sector by March 7 but tillyesterday has yet to do so.The authorised companies must first obtain approval from the commissionbefore they are allowed to import on the country’s behalf.“Even though, the identities of the companies already in the market arenot known the industry suspects they are actually the authorisedimporters,” said the trader.He added that a stronger presence from will be felt when prices droppedbelow the RM1,000 a tonne . level.“Maybe then, China will actually make public the identities of theimporters,” he said.But the scenario is unlikely as most industry observers had said palm oilprices are expected to firm up till year-end due to the possibility of ElNino and oil palm trees face production fatigue.Traders have also speculated on Monday that China’s delay in entering themarket is actually a trade reprisal against the US for hiking increasingsteel imports to a maximum of 30 per cent on March 6.They said China, also a major steel producer, had deliberately dragged itsfeet in purchasing US soyabean, a move that unfortunately affects Malaysia’s palm oil as well.Malaysia is the world’s biggest producer of palm oil accounting for 52 percent of total output. It produced 11.803 million tonnes last year of which10.593 million tonnes are exported to 140 countries.

Wednesday, March 27, 2002 - THE five-year Malaysian Government Securities(MGS) Futures or FMG5, the country’s first bond futures contract to belaunched this Friday, is expected to be a truly useful hedging instrumentfor financial institutions and private corporations with medium tolong-term interest rate exposure to effectively manage their debt andfixed income portfolio.“We believe it is timely to introduce such a hedging tool to help marketplayers with their risks associated with changing interest rates forborrowers, lenders and traders,’’ said Malaysia Derivatives Exchange Bhd(MDEX) chief operating officer Dr Zaha Rina Zahari, who expressed optimismover the future success of FMG5.She said targeted potential users of the contract included insurancecompanies, bond portfolio managers, provident funds, asset managers,corporate treasurers, individual investors and MDEX local members.“MDEX expects this transparent pricing play will assist both local andforeign players to use the FMG5 in their respective trading, hedging andarbitraging activities,’’ Zaha Rina told Star Business in Kuala Lumpuryesterday.Fund managers, for example, could use the FMG5 to adjust the duration of afixed income portfolio to take advantage of anticipated changes ininterest rates.“They can lengthen (by buying futures) or shorten (by selling futures) theduration of the portfolio,’’ she said.A portfolio with a longer duration would be more sensitive to a givenchange in rates than a similar portfolio with a shorter duration.In an environment of declining rates, the longer-term portfolio wouldrealise greater capital price gains, Zaha Rina said.Other advantages of the FMG5 include serving as a pricing benchmark andprice discovery tool, providing information on the future interest ratesmovement, and allocation of assets without having to sell the underlyingMGS.The FMG5 could also boost further development of the Malaysian RinggitBond Market and improve liquidity in the secondary market.To date, the 10 principal dealers are Amanah Short Deposits Bhd,Arab-Malaysian Merchant Bank Bhd, Commerce International Merchant BankersBhd, Citibank Bhd, Hong Leong Bank Bhd, HSBC Bank Malaysia Bhd, MalayanBanking Bhd, Public Bank Bhd, RHB Bank Bhd and Standard Chartered BankMalaysia Bhd.MDEX, a subsidiary of the KLSE, currently trades in the KLSE CompositeIndex Futures, KLSE Composite Index Options, Crude Palm Oil Futures andthe Three-Month Klibor Futures, apart from the soon-to-be-launched FMG5.It is also believed that MDEX is looking at the possibility of introducingsingle stock futures and Islamic stock index futures.

24 March 2002 (Business Times)IT's confirmed. Malaysia is buying the PT-91 main battle tanks from Polandto boost its defence capabilities.

25 March 2002 (Business Times)A RECENT move by the US to increase tariffs on steel imports has been seenas the main reason behind China’s delay in purchasing Malaysia’s palm oil.Traders said China is possibly retaliating against the US’ increase bydelaying its purchase of soyabean, which unfortunately drags down othercommodities such as rapeseed, sunflower as well as palm oil.The US is a major producer of soyabean oil and has interests in otherproducing countries such as Argentina and Brazil.“The delay could be a form of a trade reprisal to the US carried out byChina to halt soyabean imports which unfortunately also affects palm oil,”a trader told Business Times in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.President George W. Bush announced on March 6 a tariff increase of up to30 per cent on most steel imports entering the US for three years which isalso subjected to quotas.Steel producing countries around the world and even the US press reactedfuriously to the US protectionist measures with some of them threateninglawsuits and trade reprisals.The European Union and China are two of the world’s major steel producersand are in the midst of lodging a formal protest to the World TradeOrganisation (WTO).China, Malaysia’s third biggest palm oil buyer last year at 1.28 milliontonnes, has set a 2.4 million tonne quota of the commodity this year undera WTO committment.The republic was widely speculated to have entered the market in Januaryin order to meet the WTO ruling, a move that has been delayed to this day.The quota is open to all palm oil producers which include Malaysia’s rivalIndonesia. China previously announced its palm oil quota twice a year withthe first 700,000 tonnes tranche in March and the second 700,000 tranchein June.In 2000, the quota was 1.5 million tonnes, of which it bought 800,135tonnes of Malaysia’s palm oil. Last year, the republic imposed a quota of1.4 million tonnes of which it bought 1.28 million tonnes. The quota hasbeen raised to 2.4 million tonnes since its full-fledged formal entry intothe WTO last December 12 to become its 143rd member.China’s State Development and Planning Commission (SDPC) also announced apalm oil quota for 2003, 2004 and 2005 which stands at 2.6 million tonnes,2.7 million tonnes and 2.88 million respectively.SDPC also announced the quota for soyabean which stands at 2.518 milliontonnes for 2002, and 2.5 million tonnes, 2.85 million tonnes and 3.26million tonnes for 2003, 2004 and 2005 respectively. While rapeseed quotafor 2002 through 2005 stands at 770,000 tonnes, 880,000 tonnes, 996,000tonnes and 1.13 million tonnes respectively.It is understood that as a backlash to the US steel curbs, SDPC’sdistribution of licences to Chinese importers who wish to import thecommodities has been delayed. Chinese importers must first obtain approvalfrom SDPC before it can import the commodities.“It is already approaching end-March and China has yet to name theimporters let alone enter the market,” said the trader.“No one is really sure what is going on but I suspect it has something todo with China taking a swipe back at the US on the steel issue,” he said.The trader added that since it is already approaching April, China isunlikely to import 2.4 million tonnes of palm oil by year-end.“We estimate that only 70 per cent or 1.68 million tonnes of both Malaysia’s and Indonesia’s palm oil will be bought by the republic,” he said.He added that for China to meet the 2.4 million tonnes quota, a monthlyshipment of 200,000 tonnes must be made to the republic until December.“But in January and February, only 44,848 tonnes and 89,411 tonnesrespectively were shipped from Malaysia, a far cry from the targetted200,000 tonnes per month,” said the trader.He added that it is also a mystery how shipments can still be made toChina when SDPC has yet to announce the importers.Malaysia is the world’s largest producer of palm oil. Malaysia produced11.803 million tonnes last year of which 10.593 million tonnes wereexported to 140 countries.

WARSAW, March 21 (Bernama) - A special promotion for Malaysian palm oil isto be held in Poland as the two countries agreed Thursday to enhance tradeties.