The Star

Monday - April 28, 2008

By DANNY YAP

THE release of the first quarter financial results of most listed companies next month would shed some light on their performance amid a tough business environment. The challenges include rising costs, appreciation of ringgit against the dollar, high energy prices and exposure to the weakening US economy.

It’s no surprise that companies in the plantation and oil and gas sectors are generally performing well, buoyed by favourable crude palm oil (CPO) prices and high energy prices over the past two years. Commodities are expected to remain resilient in the near to medium term.

CPO futures (July contract) closed last Friday at RM3,419 per tonne, while crude oil futures closed at US$116.06 per barrel.

However, the scenario for Malaysian companies not involved in these two sectors is quite different.

Analysts are probably eager…

Share The Story :

Ruchita Saxena & Suvi Dogra / Mumbai/New Delhi April 28, 2008

The rise in raw material costs has caused a 10 per cent increase in the retail prices of fast-moving consumer goods as companies are passing on the rise in costs.

In the last few weeks, the price of the 100 gram bar of Godrej No 1 has gone up by Rs 2.5 to Rs 13, Wipro’s Santoor by Rs 2 to Rs 16, Reckitt Benckiser’s Dettol by Rs 2 to Rs 17 and Hindustan Unilever’s Pears by Rs 2 to Rs 23. Even mass market brand Lifebuoy, the largest selling, has become costlier by Re 1 to retail for Rs 12.

Food items, too, have become costlier. “We had increased milk prices in February 2007, August 2007 and then again in February 2008 � each time by Re 1. We also…

Share The Story :

Is Dove’s campaign for real beauty destroying the world’s rainforests?

Monday, 28 April 2008

For the past few years, one of the world’s biggest advertisers has been trying to persuade us to celebrate natural beauty: Unilever very successfully peddles its Dove brand on a promise of making more women feel more beautiful everyday. But is Dove killing our planet?

Watch a new ad that pastiches Dove’s own commercials and you might begin to think so. The new commercial starts off exactly like Dove’s famous Onslaught film, which attacked unrealistic images of beauty. Remember the young girl staring innocently into the camera as a tsunami of images swells towards her, urging diets, cosmetic enhancements, plastic surgeries?

The new ad has the same soundtrack, the same camera angles locking eyes with a young girl. Except that, this time, the girl is frightened. The real clue that…

Share The Story :

State-run oil giant PTT Pcl has taken over a major palm oil plantation in Kalimantan, the Indonesian province on Borneo island, PTT Prasert Bunsumpun said on Sunday.

In a three-country deal, Singapore-based PTT Green Energy Co Ltd (PTTGE), a PTT subsidiary, bought 95 per cent of PT Az Zhara of Indonesia for US$22.27 million, or about 708 million baht.

The deal was brokered by Sabra Brothers, a PTTGE subsidiary.

PT Az Zhara grow oil palm on 40,500 hectares (roughly 253,000 rai) on Kalimantan. The company has current plans to construct a plant to produce crude palm oil at the plantation site by 2012.

PTT plans to sell the palm oil both locally and for export, Mr Prasert said. He did not announce any plans to export the oil to Thailand, where palm oil is used extensively in production…

Share The Story :

Recent changes in tax policies by Indonesian, Indian and Chinese governments on Palm Oil imports may have an impact on Sri Lankan exports to those countries with increasing competition, according to industry analysts.

China and India lowered its import duty on Crude Palm Oil and Indonesia has increased export duty on Palm Oil, recently. “India has cut import duty on crude palm oil to 20% from 45% with effect from 20th March 2008 to reduce inflation in the country before the general election to be held in May 2009. Most of Sri Lanka’s Palm Oil production is exported to India tax free under the free trade agreement (however it is immaterial for oil palm giants to consider Sri Lanka as a competitor),” Srimal Liyanage, Analyst Lanka Securities (PVT) Limited said.

He noted that Indonesia has raised…

Share The Story :

New Delhi , April 27, 2008

India’s trade officials are finalising out the broad contours of a negotiation strategy for the proposed comprehensive economic cooperation agreement (CECA) with Malaysia aimed to catapult bilateral trade to $16 billion by 2012.

An inter-ministerial meeting was held earlier this month to discuss issues on trade in services under the proposed CECA. The CECA would cover a wide range of areas including telecommunication, financial services and infrastructure among others and negotiations are expected to complete by 2009.

Trade negotiators, who did not wish to be identified, said India would seek binding commitments from Malaysia on a host of sectors including banking and financial services, motion picture production and distribution, construction services, and telecommunications.

“India would seek full commitments including mutual recognition agreements (MRA) in sectors such as construction…

Share The Story :

The Star

Saturday April 26, 2008

COMMENT BY ERROL OH

WITH crude palm oil prices camping well above the RM3,000 per tonne level for several months now, many people must surely be sorely tempted to venture into the plantation sector. After all, coaxing a middling yield from an oil palm holding isn’t rocket science, and selling a commodity in a hot market can’t be too hard either.

However, this ignores the fact that the palm oil business is no longer primarily about maximising estate and mill performance, and getting the best prices for the output.

Palm oil has become a truly global commodity and there are many stakeholders to address these days. The strong growth of the demand for palm oil has heightened concerns about the industry’s impact on the environment and the communities near the plantations.

In particular, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Europe…

Share The Story :

German consumer and industrial product manufacturer Henkel has joined the international Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil as an official member, effective April 2008.

Palm oil has received a lot of negative press and has also been derided by ecologists for its unsustainable use as feedstock in biofuels and other industrial uses.

The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil’s (RSPO) stated mission is to ensure that commercialized palm oil satisfies certain key sustainability criteria. Henkel has noted that it supports this process by participating in meetings and contributing its expert knowledge to the ensuing debate.

To this end, specific certification procedures are reportedly being prepared in order to enable the identification of palm oil that has been produced under sustainable conditions.

While, Henkel itself does not produce, purchase or process palm oil, it utilizes it, indirectly via its surfactant suppliers, with palm kernel oil being used…

Share The Story :

UTA (Bali), April 26 (Bernama) — Malaysia and Indonesia today agreed to carry out joint scientific research to counter anti-palm oil propaganda among Western non-governmental organisations.

Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Peter Chin Fah Kui said the findings would then be tabled at international conferences as well as to the European members of parliament.

This was aimed at correcting inaccuracy about palm oil which tainted the image of industry, he said.

“We will present accurate facts to all those who are against palm oil whether for econonic reasons, or due to concerns over global warming or because they are agents to palm oil competitors,” he told Bernama here Friday.

Earlier he led the Malaysian delegation at the meeting of the Malaysia-Indonesia joint committee on palm oil, cocoa and pepper.

Chin said Malaysia and Indonesia, which produced almost 90…

Share The Story :

Senior officers from Malaysia and Indonesia discussed strategies to promote palm oil in the global market to counter the anti-palm oil campaign in the West, particularly by soy oil producers.

The move was discussed at the three-day Joint Committee Meeting on Bilateral Cooperation on the Commodities of palm oil, cocoa and pepper between Malaysia and Indonesia held here yesterday.

Effects of various aspects of commodity plantation industries on changing climate and measures to counter the impact was also discussed in the meet.

Details of the two countries’ measures and strategies on the issue of commodities, especially palm oil will be made public soon.

Malaysia and Indonesia are the world’s two largest producers of palm oil with a 90 per cent share of world market and the clearance of any negative perception of the commodity is…

Share The Story :