Business Times

29 September, 2010

MUMBAI: Palm oil may tumble as much as 7.4 per cent by the end of October as Malaysian production rebounds and Indonesian growers speed up shipments because of an export tax, according to Godrej International Ltd.

Futures may decline by RM150 to RM200 a tonne, Dorab Mistry, a director at Godrej, told an edible oils conference in Mumbai today. The company is one of India’s biggest buyers of cooking oil.

Palm oil has jumped 19 per cent from an eight-month low on July 7 this year on optimism consumption will increase in Asia because of festivals and excess rainfall may disrupt harvests in Malaysia and Indonesia, the world’s top producers.

Malaysian inventories climbed 23 per cent to 1.72 million tonnes in August from July, the country’s palm oil board said September 15. Read the rest of this entry »

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By MUGUNTAN VANAR

The Star

28 September, 2010

KOTA KINABALU: A new oil palm clone dubbed Wakuba oil palm ramet brand was launched with a promise of doubling the current oil yield.

Named after TSH Resources Bhd unit TSH Biotech Sdn Bhd’s five-year-old tissue-culture laboratory in Wakuba Gading, Tawau, Sabah, the new clone promises an oil yield of up to 10 tonnes per ha compared with the average current yield of about 4.5 tonnes per ha in the country. Read the rest of this entry »

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By Claire Leow

Sept. 28 (Bloomberg) — Palm oil dropped, slipping from yesterday’s 16-month high, on concern that a seasonal boost in output may expand stockpiles for a second month in September.

December-delivery palm oil dropped as much as 0.6 percent to 2,718 ringgit ($880) a metric ton on the Malaysia Derivatives Exchange, before pausing at 2,726 ringgit at the 12:30 p.m. trading break in Kuala Lumpur.

“Near-term, crude palm oil prices should be trending slightly lower to the 2,600-ringgit level,” Arhnue Tan, a senior analyst at ECM Libra Capital Sdn., said today. “Stock levels are expected to pick up come October as the peak- production cycle is in tow.” Read the rest of this entry »

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Business Times

27 September, 2010

The field is now wide open for Malaysia’s palm oil mills to step up the value-chain in providing millions of tonnes of palm oil and oil-palm biomass for value-added downstream activities.

AT THE opening of Sabah’s first palm-pressed fibre oil exraction plant in the once-thriving timber town of Keningau last week, the state’s Minister of Industrial Development Datuk Raymond Tan Shu Kiah imparted some valuable lessons in value-adding and leveraging on new technologies as sources of generating wealth.

Using the example of how Penang-based Eonmetall Group Bhd has helped Malaysia gain a foothold to lead in palm oil innovations by developing and holding the patent on palm pressure fibre oil technology, Tan inspired confidence among those present at the event – that Sabah can now tap technology by turning waste into “gold”.

For a town like Keningau, which once rode the logging boom until the late 1980s when its timber resources were depleted, the fact that palm oil estates have appeared in some parts recently should help the local economy.
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Recharge News

27 September, 2010

Malaysia’s Palm Oil Industrial Cluster (POIC) in Sabah state has affirmed its plans to purchase oil palm-based biomass from millers for power generation, a local government official says.

Raymond Tan, minister of industrial development, says POIC was granted financial assistance from the state government.

“The government is convinced that with the right technology, biomass such as empty fruit bunches can be used as one of the fuel sources to generate electricity for both industrial and domestic use,” Tan says.

He points out that the initiative will not coerce people to sell biomass to POIC, neither will it stop anyone else from buying the organic wastes. Read the rest of this entry »

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KOTA KINABALU, Sept 27 (Bernama) — The palm oil industry’s contribution to export revenue is expected to be higher this year but whether it will touch RM65.2 billion recorded in 2008 will depend on crude palm oil (CPO) prices staying high and stable till year-end.

Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities, Tan Sri Bernard Dompok, said the ministry was confident of surpassing last year’s record of RM49.5 billion as export earnings from palm oil and related products for the first seven months of this year had reached RM32.94 billion.

“What I am interested now is whether we can reach 2008′s level,” he told reporters after launching the 2010 National Seminar on Palm Oil Milling, Refining, Environment and Quality here Monday.

Dompok said the (palm oil) production figures may not vary much, the expectation being 17.5 million tonnes recorded last year so the prices now would play a factor. Read the rest of this entry »

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KOTA KINABALU, Sept 27 (Bernama) — The Wakuba oil palm ramet (cloned seedling) brand was launched by Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Tan Sri Bernard Dompok on Monday.

The seedling has been touted to transform the plantation sector with its promise of higher yields.

The ramet is a result of a five-year partnership between TSH Resources Bhd subsidiary, TSH Biotech Sdn Bhd, and the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) through a tissue culture laboratory in Tawau, where the company conducts research and development using MPOB’s offer of knowledge on high yielding cloned shoots in the market.

Named after the laboratory located in Wakuba Gading, the Wakuba ramet promises oil yield of up to 10 tonnes per hectare which is more than a two-fold rise compared to Malaysia’s average of 4.5 tonnes per hectare.

The launching took place at the 2010 National Seminar on Palm Oil Milling, Refining, Environment and Quality (POMREQ) here today, where a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) was also inked between TSH Resources and MPOB.
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By Sharon Fitzpatrick,

Zia View

27 September, 2010

In a remarkable turn of events, the Round Table on Sustainable Palm Oil the RSPO, is policing its own ranks to be sure that those who are part of the group are working in the best interests of the environment in a big way.

Unlike many other business groups and initiatives the RSPO has sent standards for the production of eco-friendly palm oil and they insist that their members adhere to those standards. In fact, they actually watch them to be sure that they do. Profit does not come first.

On Thursday they said that the palm oil products of the Indonesian producing company  Sinar Mas Agro Resources and Technology (SMART)  had been in breach of the criteria for sustainability and they were considering expelling them from the group.

“The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil takes all infringements of its Code of Conduct and Principles and Criteria very seriously,” was a statement released on the website by the group. Read the rest of this entry »

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