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Palm oil closes at highest level in over a year
Palm oil harvest may pick up in March
Palm oil stocks at lowest level in seven months
CPO prices to fall to between RM3,800-RM4,000 a tonne in April: MPOC
El Nino factor seen boosting CPO prices
Thursday September 23, 2004 - WEATHER will again be the key factor thatcould drive crude palm oil (CPO) prices higher going forward.
First Malaysian biofuel plant to be set up soon
9/21/2004 - BUSINESS TIMES (MALAYSIA) - A CONSORTIUM of local privatecompanies plans to set up Malaysia's first palm oil-based diesel plantwithin the next three months, with Europe as its main target market.
Univanich Palm Oil forecasts strong growth in Thai
9/22/2004 THAI PRESS REPORTS - In the first announcement of annualresults since Univanich was listed on the SET in November 2003, Chairman,Mr. Apirag Vanich, noted that strong growth in Thailand's oil palmindustry has assisted the Company in achieving several new growthmilestones. "Thailand's production of palm fruit increased to 4.8 milliontonnes in 2003 with most of the growth in the small farmer sector. Thisenabled Univanich to also increase its production since the Companypurchased 76% of its fruit from outside growers " said Mr. Vanich. "Due tothis increasing production from our fruit suppliers Univanich factoriesreached the significant milestone of more than 500,000 tonnes fruitprocessed in one year, an increase of 18.6% over the previous year. Thisis the maximum of the Company's present capacity and a new factory isalready under construction for opening in the 4th quarter of 2004" hesaid.
Use biotechnology to tap potential of oil palm ind
DEWAN RAKYAT, Sept 21 - MALAYSIA should make full use of advances inbiotechnology to exploit the potential of the oil palm industry, abackbencher said yesterday.
China Soybean Imports Remain Slow
18/09/04 CHINA - Although the US soybean prices have dropped greatly thisweek, China has still only bought less than 2 million tons of soybeanstotally, with most of the contracts signed by FOB term. At present, thepurchasing funds of most Chinese large and middle crushers have beenshort. If the procurements of both the domestic and international soybeansdecline this year, the soybean prices in Northeast China will beinfluenced by insufficient demand, which will provide broad developmentspaces for large foreign crushers, and this will probably lead to greatchanges in the pattern of China’s soybean crushing industry in 2004/05.
Foreign Crushers’ Soybean Imports Account for 80%
18/09/04 CHINA - The newly signed soybean import contracts by the twolarge Chinese oil groups have accounted 80% of the total, mainly by FOBterm, and the large Chinese crushers used to organize delegation to USAfor soybean procurements. The domestic soybean crushers have contracted 4or 5 US soybeans by CNF term, with the buyers being two large oil groups,and the signing of the contracts has been shelved or avoided disputes, sothe signing has been very complicated. Most Chinese large or middle-sizedcrushers are facing no foreign suppliers, so they have turned to domesticsoybeans or South American soybeans; or have suffered losses in the firsthalf-year, making their funds short. Two large Chinese oil groups areexperiencing the best opportunity in the past years for development andunder the current situation that the competitive edge of other crushershave reduced, they will grow rapidly, including merger, rebuild and extend
GHope, UM in R&D pact to conserve Carey Island
Wednesday September 22, 2004 - GOLDEN Hope Plantations Bhd (GHope) andUniversiti Malaya (UM) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) tocollaborate in research and development (R&D) pertaining to conservationand development of biodiversity and natural resources on Carey Island,Selangor.
Govt Focusing On Three Thrust Areas To Address Dep
KOTA KINABALU, Sept 21 (Bernama) -- The government will prioritise threethrust areas -- productivity, efficiency and competitiveness -- as part ofthe strategies and policies under the Third National Agricultural Policy(NAP3) to address high dependency on imports.
Indonesia's CPO Exports To India To Rise By Up To
21/09/04 - JAKARTA (Dow Jones)--Indonesia's PT Astra Agro Lestariexpects the country's crude palm oil exports to India to rise by 5%-10%following India's decision to lower CPO tariff values by $50 a metric ton,Bisnis Indonesia reported Tuesday.A downward revision in tariff values, from which import taxes arecalculated, has effectively lowered the import tax on CPO in India.Benny Tjoeng, vice president of Astra Agro Lestari, was quoted assaying the change will boost India's CPO consumption, as it will make thecommodity cheaper."The price of CPO in India (will decline) by $32 a ton" as a result ofthe move, he said.India has been the company's largest market for CPO, taking in around10,000 tons a month, Tjoeng said.However, he said the company has no plans to increase its exports toIndia, as it plans to keep domestic and export sales around the samelevel.Indonesia is the world's second largest CPO producer after Malaysia.The government has predicted production will reach 11 million tons thisyear, buoyed by a steady increase in plantation area to 4.6 millionhectares.According to the Indonesian Palm Oil Association, or Gapki, Indonesiaproduced 9.9 million tons of CPO in 2003, while the Indonesian governmentputs the figure at 10.6 million tons.