SINGAPORE, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Singapore-listed palm oil refiner Wilmar International Holdings said it has already sold half of its planned biodiesel production at firm prices from its three plants in Indonesia due to start operating next year.

The firm -- which owns 96,360 hectares (238,100 acres) of palm plantations and operates 72 milling, crushing, refining and processing plants in Indonesia and Malaysia -- expects the first of its three, 350,000-tonne biodiesel plants to start running in January 2007 and will run at full capacity in 2008.

Kuok Khoon Hong, Wilmar's chairman and CEO, said the company planned to produce 700,000 tonnes of biodiesel next year, and has already lined up customers in the United States and Europe to buy half of that amount.

By the end of 2007 all the plants, based in Indonesia, will be up and running, taking biodiesel production capacity to a total of 1.05 million tonnes, he said.

"Half of the 2007 biodiesel production has been sold and the margins we are getting are likely to push our profits higher," Kuok told a press and analyst briefing in Singapore.

"Our biodiesel meets the U.S. and European specs and standards and is good for all weather conditions," he said.

Some experts believe that biodiesel sourced from edible oils such as palm oil has a higher cloud point -- the level where liquids start to freeze -- than fossil fuels, making them unsuitable for use in colder climates.

Wilmar, in which U.S. agribusiness giant Archer Daniels Midland Co is a significant shareholder through its Asia-Pacific subsidiary, said on Thursday that net profit jumped 76 percent to US$36.3 million in the third quarter ending September, from US$20.6 million in the year-ago period.

Kuok said the nine-month net profit of $68.3 million was already well above the $58 million earned in the whole of 2005.

"So you can take a higher full-year profit as given. We will also beat the profit of around $15 million we made in the fourth quarter last year," he said.

HIGHER MARGINS

In the third quarter, revenue from the merchandising and refinery segment, Wilmar's key revenue contributor, rose 9.2 percent, the company said in a statement.

Kuok said the "economy of scales" due to recent capacity expansion had led to above-average margins of about $17 per tonne of palm oil. He said the company in the past several years had operated on an average margin of between $8 to $12 per tonne.

He added that the company was boosting its palm refining, crushing, milling and fertiliser manufacturing capacities in Indonesia and Malaysia this year, further widening the earnings base.

"Through these initiatives, we will continue to ride on the growth in Indonesia's palm oil industry, demand growth from China and other emerging markets as well as the increasing use of biodiesel globally," Kuok said.

Shares in Wilmar were up 4.4 percent an hour before the close of trade on Thursday, and are up 54 percent since Aug. 8, when they started trading after a reverse takeover of Ezyhealth Asia Pacific.

The company has a stock market capitalisation of about US$2.2 billion.

Wilmar shares trade at 12 times the firm's 2007 forecast earnings, compared with 13 times for Archer Daniels and much cheaper than its Malaysian peer Golden Hope Plantations which trades at 16.9 times.