Berita Arkib

20 November 2001 (Business Times) - THE proposed acquisition of UnileverPlc NV’s palm oil refinery in Rotterdam, Netherlands, by Golden HopePlantations Bhd may not be as straight-forward a deal as hoped, sourcessay.This is because Unilever has received several new bids for the plant frommultinational companies, among them Swiss-based food giant Nestle SA andmultinational commodity trader Cargill.“With the latest development, negotiations may take a little longer thanexpected,” a source told Business Times in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.It has been reported that Golden Hope was expected to conclude anagreement this week to buy the plant from the British-Dutch food andconsumer products giant.The refinery, Unimills, employs 210 workers and is located at Zwijndrechtin the vicinity of the world’s fourth biggest port, Rotterdam.Its price tag is not immediately known but industry observers said asimilar refinery in Malaysia would cost between RM200 million and RM300million to develop, and an oleochemical facility RM400 million to RM500million.“Golden Hope looks to be still having the upper hand in the negotiationsthough... being a palm oil producer. Unilever is stressing the long-termviability of the refinery,” the source said.“Unilever would prefer to sell to a raw producer of palm oil to ensurethat the plant can continue to operate even when times are bad.”As such, the sale price is not quite an issue with Unilever.“In addition, Golden Hope and Unilever have long had a close workingrelationship, including in marketing and brand promotion of Unilever’s 400or so palm oil and palm kernel-based household products,” he said.Unilever itself has palm oil operations in Malaysia, undertaken throughPamol Plantations Sdn Bhd which has a total of 24,291ha under oil palmcultivation in Johor, Sabah and Sarawak.It is understood that Golden Hope group chief executive officer, DatukAbdul Wahab Maskan, and the company’s top executives returned to theNetherlands yesterday to resume talks, after only coming back to Malaysiaon Sunday.Meanwhile, Unilever press officer Richard Van Der Eijk said in an e-mailto Business Times that the refinery is being hived off because therefinery has built up a substantial enough business with third parties tomake it a stand-alone operation.“The disposal is also in line with Unilever’s overall growth strategy andfurther development of its 400 leading brands,” he said.Van der Eijk refused to give an indication of the price being negotiatedbut said the refinery has capacity to process about 450,000 tonnes of palmkernel, coconut, soyabean, rapeseed and sunflower oil.He also dismissed suggestions that Unilever is selling the refinerybecause the group is in the red.“We have sales of up to 130 million euros (1 euro = RM3.41) from ourproducts sold in the central and northwesten parts of Europe alone,” hesaid.An analyst said while Golden Hope’s proposed investment may not showimmediate returns, it represents a good long-term venture, which Malaysiancompanies need to pursue to further promote the country’s palm oil sector.“If Malaysia is to make its mark overseas as a palm oil producer, localcompanies must make such investments,” he said.In any case, such projects are not new to Malaysia. Golden Hope is also inthe midst of setting up palm oil operations in Vietnam and China.And United Plantations Bhd has palm oil operations in Mexico, the US andBritain, while Sime Darby Bhd owns a refinery in Egypt and the Kwok Grouphas one in China, the analyst said.Nestle is the world’s biggest food group. It employs 224,541 workers andoperates 479 factories worldwide. Sales totalled 81.4 billion Swiss francs(1 Sfr = RM2.32) last year.In Malaysia, Nestle Malaysia Bhd distributes 640 brands of food products.In terms of turnover and profitability, it is the fourth largest Nestlesubsidiary in Asia Pacific, after Japan, Australia and the Philippines.Cargill is an international trader, processor and distributor ofagricultural, food, financial and industrial products and services.It has operations in 57 countries and a 90,000-strong workforce.

15 November 2001 (Business Times) - A DEEPAVALI gift to local commodityproducers and smallholders! Malaysia is soon meeting other countries whichproduces rubber, palm oil and timber to ensure more stabilised prices ofthese commodities in the international market.

12 November 2001 (Berita Harian)

16 November 2001 (Business Times) - MALAYSIA’S crude palm oil (CPO) marketlooks set to continue its bullish streak or a mini bull run in the nearterm due to tight edible oils supplies globally.Tradewinds Plantation Services Sdn Bhd executive director Rashidi Omarsaid unless a major crisis hits the sector, such as overproduction, hesees no reason why palm oil prices cannot continue with their currentmomentum.“It does look to me that the worst seems to be over for the sector and itis set for a brighter future in response to a host of marketfriendly-factors,” he told Business Times in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.The commodity was trading in February at RM693 a tonne on the spot market,its lowest level in more than a decade and a sharp reversal from the peakof RM2,505.71 a tonne in May 1998.CPO prices hovered between RM700 and RM800 a tonne, averaging RM743 inMay, RM795.50 in June and RM893 in July before shooting limit-up acrossthe board and breaching the RM1,000 a tonne mark at the MalaysiaDerivatives Exchange on July 12, a level not seen in 13 months.Since then prices have steadily climbed and surged 150 per cent from RM693a tonne in February to RM1,125 a tonne for the physical December Southcontract last Tuesday.A few weeks after the September 11 terrorist attacks on the US, prices ofthe commodity briefly plunged to RM850 a tonne but have since steadilyclimbed back to the RM1,000 level.The sector has been hurt for the past two years due to intense competitionfrom the world’s 16 other edible oils such as sunflower and rapeseed andweak demand.The Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB), the country’s palm oil industryregulator and watchdog, on Monday released its October figures on palm oiloutput, export and national stockpile.Malaysia’s palm oil exports in October rose markedly to 898,918 tonnes, a37.87 per cent increase from 652,020 tonnes in the previous month, furtherlifting sentiment in the market.“For us small players, this is basically good news and coupled with thevarious efforts by the Government to boost the sector such as replanting,we expect prices to average at RM1,200 a tonne next year,” said Rashidiwho oversees some 60,000ha of oil palm, mainly in Sabah and Sarawak.A trader said that with the war being almost over in Afghanistan, shipperscan now put the war-risk premium for insurance cover behind them and lookforward to exporting palm oil to Europe, India and China.“The market is monitoring closely exports for this month which we hopewill touch the 1.1-million-tonne mark by November 30,” he said.According to cargo surveyor Societe Generale de Surveillance (SGS),Malaysia’s CPO exports from November 1 to November 15 registered 593,084tonnes, a 33 per cent increase compared with 443,614 during the sameperiod last month.SGS said China consumed the bulk of it with 87,237 tonnes, India 64,500tonnes, Pakistan 58,890 tonnes, and the European Union 146,647 tonnes.MPOB will release official exports, production and national stockpilefigures for November on December 15.“Prices may test the next resistance level at RM1,200, a three-month high,in the near term after breaching the previous mark at RM1,153 when ittraded as high as RM1,170 a tonne at mid-day yesterday,” said the trader.However, another trader disagreed, saying the market may lose steam afterSGS released the figures.The trader said buyers are already selling down on concerns of thecommodity being a bit overpriced, sending the market into a technicalretracement and correction.Meanwhile, at the Malaysia Derivatives Exchange, CPO futures closed loweryesterday on profit-taking after Tuesday’s rally, a dealer said.“However, the outlook for CPOprices is still bright in the intermediateterm due to the fasting month (which starts on Saturday).This will helpboost demand from Islamic countries such as Pakistan, Bangla-desh andparts of India,” the dealer said.He added that the current wet spell is expected to depress supply furtherand prevent workers from harvesting, which will buoy prices.Benchmark third-month January contract closed RM46 lower at RM1,105 atonne with November, December, February and March easing RM11, RM36, RM46and RM43 to close at RM1,100, RM1,089, RM1,114 and RM1,116 a tonne,respectively.Total open positions increased 261 contracts to 12,756 contracts whiletotal turnover surged 1,440 lots, or 200 per cent to 2,874 lots.

Oleh Idris Omar12 November 2001 (Berita Harian)

Oleh Datuk Dr Yusof Basiron12 November 2001 (Berita Harian)

15 November 2001 (Business Times) - Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) andIJM Plantations Sdn Bhd (IJMP) today signed a Memorandum of Understandingto explore prospects for joint research and development in the oil palmindustry.

12 November 2001 (Berita Harian)

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 12 (Bernama) -- Crude Palm Oil (CPO) production inMalaysia increased 40,337 tonnes or 3.7 percent to 1,141,072 tonnes inOctober 2001 compared with 1,100,735 tonnes in September, Malaysian PalmOil Board (MPOB) said.

12 November 2001 (Berita Harian)

LONDON, 11/13/2001 (BUSINESS WIRE) The imminent announcement by theEuropean Commission of its proposals for two new directives to ensure thatbiofuels make an important contribution to the total automotive fuelconsumption in the EU will give a huge boost to the European Biodieselindustry.The directives will make changes to tax laws to enable EU member states tointroduce tax breaks for biofuels, and will stipulate that biofuels mustmake up a fixed percentage of all automotive fuel sales across Europe.A new study of the European Biodiesel market by Frost & Sullivan forecaststhat this firm backing by the Commission will help increase the biodieselmarket from todays $504million to $2.4billion by 2007, a compound annualgrowth rate of 25% over the forecast period.Gordon McManus, research analyst with Frost & Sullivan explains,"Biodiesel can cost over twice as much to produce as conventional diesel,without some form of tax exemption it cannot compete at the pumps. Untilnow these exemptions have only been available in some countries, leadingto huge geographical variations in the biodiesel market and uncertaintyfor producers. The politicians are laying the challenge firmly at the feetof the producers to meet the volumes of biodiesel needed, meaning a lot ofhard work in terms of raw material procurement, capacity expansion andmarket development."As part of the Kyoto Agreement, the EU committed to reducing emissions ofCO2 by 8% by 2012. The life cycle analysis (LCA) approach to the overallatmospheric CO2 contribution of a fuel suggests that biodiesel uses about50% less CO2 than mineral diesel. This is one of the main incentives forindividual governments, and the European Commission, to support thedevelopment of the biodiesel market.However, limits on the production of non-food oilseeds, and a decrease insupport payments for oilseed producers means there is less incentive forfarmers to grow rapeseed -- the main source of oil for the biodieselindustry. But, whether the price of rapeseed rises high enough tosignificantly affect the biodiesel market, or whether demand for rapeseedfrom the biodiesel industry outstrips the possible supply, restraints onthe availability of raw materials is likely to be a major restrainingforce as the biodiesel market grows.

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