Asiaone Business

20 August, 2010

By Harry Suhartono and Niluksi Koswanage

SINGAPORE/KUALA LUMPUR – Singapore’s Wilmar International, the world’s No.1 listed palm oil firm, is on the prowl for assets as far afield as Brazil in its quest to dominate the world in another commodity – sugar.

Wilmar has already notched up one high-profile acquisition with its purchase of Sucrogen, the world’s No.5 sugar refiner, from Australian conglomerate CSR for US$1.5 billion (S$2 billion), the largest deal so far this year in the global sugar industry. Read the rest of this entry »

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AFP

20 August, 2010

JAKARTA — Norway agreed Thursday to advance 30 million dollars to Indonesia in the first installment of a planned billion-dollar scheme to cut the country’s greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation.

After two days of talks in Jakarta, Norwegian officials said they were satisfied that Indonesia was making progress towards its promise to impose a two-year moratorium on deforestation starting in January 2011.

“Indonesia… is taking a global leadership role on climate change. Norway is honoured to work with Indonesia in a partnership built on mutual trust and respect, and a long time friendship,” Norwegian Ambassador Eivind Homme said.

“Our shared commitment to transparency, accountability and predictable contributions in return for agreed deliverables breaks new ground in international climate change collaboration.” Read the rest of this entry »

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Ghana News Agency

Kwae (ER), Aug. 19, GNA – Small-scale oil palm growers and other stakeholders in the Eastern and Ashanti Regions on Thursday met at the Ghana Oil Palm Development Company (GOPDC) at Kwae, to deliberate on sustainable practices in small-scale palm oil production.

The meeting, which was convened at the instance of GOPDC, was to enhance broad consultation on how Ghana could produce sustainable palm oil in accordance with the requirements of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).

It was sponsored by Solidaridad of Netherlands, Chemico Limited and GOPDC.

The RSPO was established in 2003, to address bad practices in the oil palm cultivation and palm oil production.

It was to promote the production, procurement and use of sustainable palm oil. Read the rest of this entry »

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By James M. Roberts

Fox News – Opinions

19 August, 2010

Greenpeace and other radical green groups are big on “corporate social responsibility” (CSR). What constitutes CSR, you ask? Among other things, the willingness to let the “green” agenda trump sound business practices.

Of late, the greens have taken to pressuring Western multinational companies to forswear buying paper and palm-based products from the Asian tropics. The campaign thrills Greenpeace donors, but threatens lasting harm to millions of men and women in poor nations.

Timber, paper and palm oil produced in the tropical belt are valued for their high quality and low cost. But radical greens oppose any commercial development in the tropics, which they want to preserve as pristine wilderness. And so they harass the multinationals, accusing them of razing the rainforest and destroying habitat for orangutans, tigers, and other endangered species.

The gambit works. Global food giant Nestlé recently suspended imports of palm oil from Asia. So have Unilever and Procter & Gamble. Read the rest of this entry »

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By Niluksi Koswanage and Naveen Thukral

Reuters

18 August, 2010

European consumers will be forced to boost shipments of palm oil, despite a vigorous campaign by green groups against it, after a drought that shriveled oilseed crops across the Black Sea region.

Palm oil futures on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange climbed to a 15-month top last week and the market could be set for further gains as European consumers scurry for supplies to satisfy demand from the food and fuel sectors.

A storm could be brewing in global vegetable oil markets, analysts say, although not on the scale seen in U.S. wheat futures, which surged to two-year highs this month.

“Europe’s rapeseed crop was lower than expected and Ukraine is going to have a very limited supply available for exports,” said Doug Whitehead, a commodities analyst at Rabobank in London. Read the rest of this entry »

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July 23, 2010

The Sydney Morning Herald

Consider two Mars bars, each containing palm oil. One uses oil from a sustainable plantation, the other uses oil from plantations associated with the deaths of endangered orang-utans or tigers. Which would you buy? The answer may be obvious, but for businesses using palm oil – in products ranging from shampoos and chips to lipstick and salad dressing – the problem is more complex.

Palm oil, so versatile and high-yielding it is considered a super crop, is fast becoming a pariah among health-conscious and environmentally aware consumers.

CSR could soon discover the sort of attention palm oil attracts, having announced its sugar and renewable energy division, Sucrogen, was sold to the Singapore agribusiness Wilmar International this month. Wilmar, the world’s largest processor and merchandiser of palm oil, has attracted strong criticism from green groups.

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In the same week as the Sucrogen sale, Sinar Mas, an Indonesian pulp and paper supplier with interests in Australia – it supplies companies such as PaperlinX and Solaris Paper, Kimberly Clark and Woolworths – was criticised for its large palm oil investments, which are linked to the destruction of rainforests.

Sinar Mas and Wilmar are aware of the reputational risk that comes with palm oil production. But to most Australians and Australian businesses, the commodity has had little attention until now.

As a biofuel, it puts global food supplies under pressure. Every time land is cleared to make way for an oil palm biofuel plantation, precious land cannot be used to produce food. Read the rest of this entry »

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The News

July 16, 2010

JAKARTA: Pakistan has bought nearly 20 percent of the palm oil exports ahead of Ramazan, traders said on Thursday.

Malaysian crude palm oil rose to a more than three-week high at midday on Thursday, supported by strong demand ahead of the start of Ramazan in August.

Exports of Malaysian palm oil products for July 1-15 rose 16.4 percent to 708,384 tonnes from 608,324 tonnes shipped between June 1 and 15, cargo surveyor Societe Generale de Surveillance said on Thursday.

“We are moving in to Ramazan next month which will push up demand from Muslim countries,” a trader at a foreign-brokerage firm said. “Soybean also gained which also supports the market.”

While Muslims refrain from eating and drinking from dawn to sunset during Ramadan, consumption increases from when they break their fast to the next morning.

The benchmark September contract on Bursa Malaysia’s Derivatives Exchange edged up 14 ringgit or 0.59 percent to 2,395 ringgit ($748) a tonne by midday, after touching an intraday high of 2,418 ringgit — a level last seen on June 21.

Overall volume stood at 11,133 lots of 25 tonnes each, more than double the usual 5,000 lots.

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July 6, 2010

The National Business Review

Nevil Gibson

Singapore’s large commodity trading company Wilmar International has trumped China’s Bright Food Group and bought CSR’s planned Sucrogen spin-off, which includes majority control of the Chelsea sugar refinery in Auckland.

After months of negotiating with the Chinese company, CSR directors surprised the market yesterday with the announcement that it had accepted a $A1.75 billion bid from Wilmar.

The planned demerger of Sucrogen will no longer go ahead . Investors immediately endorsed the offer, which is subject to overseas ownership approvals in both Australia and New Zealand.

The shares rose 4% to $A1.75, a gain of 6Ac. A big beneficiary will be GPG, which has a significant 5% shareholding in CSR.

If successful, the deal is expected to net around $A1.6 billion, or $A1.06 a share for CSR, which will have a number of options to choose from to reward shareholders.

Shanghai-based Bright Food submitted its final bid of $A1.65 billion last Friday amid reports it had lowered its offer from its previous conditional bid of $A1.75 billion, first made in January, due to lower sugar prices.

CSR chairman Ian Blackburne said the Wilmar offer was in the “best interests” of shareholders, valuing the sugar business at 14 times last year’s earning before interest and tax (ebit) and 23 times the division’s average earnings over the past decade. Read the rest of this entry »

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