Berita Arkib

3/4/2005 Thai Press Reports - Thai Vegetable Oil, manufacturer of A-ngoonsoybean cooking oil for almost 37 years, is now studying a variety ofnatural ingredients for use in a new premium product targeted athealth-conscious consumers, The Nation reports.

3/2/05 - Premiums of soybeans delivered to Asia are likely to fall in theweek ahead as key consumers here continue to shun expensive U.S. soybeans.

KUALA LUMPUR, March 3 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia will introduce a CommonTrading Platform (CTP) for derivatives trading in the second quarter ofthis year to spur further growth of the local crude palm oil futuresmarket, its chairman, Tun Mohamed Dzaiddin Abdullah, Thursday.

Friday March 4, 2005 - BURSA Malaysia Bhd chairman Tun Mohamed DzaiddinAbdullah said the exchange’s implementation of a common trading platformby the second quarter of this year will boost the derivatives market.

KUALA LUMPUR, March 3 (Bernama) -- The rise in petroleum prices over thepast two years has increased the average production cost of vegetable oilto between US$20 and US$30 per tonne.

NEW DELHI (Dow Jones)--India's soy oil millers are upset about thefederal government cutting the base price on which the import duty of soyoil is calculated, a senior industry official said late Wednesday."The change in tariff value at this time when (a bumper) rapeseed cropis (being harvested) may send (the wrong) signal to oilseed farmers. Thismay motivate the farmer to shift from oilseeds to other competing crops,"saidRajesh Agrawala, chairman of the Soybean Processors Association of India,or SOPA.On Tuesday, India's federal government cut the base price on which theimport duty of soy oil is calculated to $485 a metric ton from $565/ton.Generally, the base price of imported edible oil is cut or hiked by thegovernment to keep the base price as close as possible to the prevailinginternational price of that edible oil.The current international soy oil price is around $550/ton-$560/ton, sothere is "no rationale in reducing" the base price, Agrawala said.The federal government doesn't provide explanations for cuts or hikes inthe base price of any imported edible oil.

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.