The Star

Thursday May 28, 2009

PETALING JAYA: Kuala Lumpur Kepong Bhd (KLK) said its net profit for the three months ended March 31 fell 52% to RM112.68mil from RM238.65mil a year ago.

A sharp decline in palm oil prices and lower crop hit the group’s bottomline.

Reduced profits at its manufacturing division and increased losses at its retail operations were also major drags on earnings.

Turnover during the quarter narrowed 24% to RM1.44bil against RM1.89bil previously.

“The directors are of the opinion that the group’s profit for the current financial year will be much lower than the preceeding year,’’ the planter said in a statement to Bursa Malaysia yesterday. Read the rest of this entry »

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Allafrica.com

Muhammad K. Muhammad

Nigeria should consider using oil palm to produce bio-fuel, an alternative source of fuel, the Executive Director, Nigerian Conservation Foundation, Professor Emmanuel Asuquo Obot, has urged.

The Professor made the call while speaking on the importance of the palm plant during the official commissioning of the Sarius Palmetum and Botanical Garden in Abuja on Saturday.

The use of the palm plant as an alternative source of fuel, the professor said, would help in saving the environment, thereby checking climate change because palms could reduce carbon emission.

Professor Obot, who said that the palm plant had over a dozen uses, in furnishing and agriculture, religion and medicine, added that this would greatly help to reduce incidences of inter-ethnic and other forms of crisis because such crises were directly linked to climate change.

Also speaking at the occasion, former Minister of Defence, retired General Theophilus Danjuma, commended the proprietors of the garden for choosing palm for conservation. According to him, the palm plant, which he described as his ‘queen’ among plants was a rare tree which deserved to be admired.

The proprietor of the garden, Mrs Ajoke Murtala Muhammed, said the garden, which covers about 22.6 hectares of land, had almost 400 species of palm from all parts of the world.

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The Star

Wednesday May 27, 2009

By ZAZALI MUSA

JOHOR BARU: Kulim (M) Bhd is allocating RM80mil in capital expenditure to expand its planting area in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Solomon Islands this year.

Chairman Tan Sri Muhammad Ali Hashim said the expansion would be undertaken by Kulim’s subsidiaries New Britain Palm Oil Ltd (NBPOL) and Ramu Agri-Industries Ltd.

He said Kulim had identified new area of 6,000ha in PNG scheduled to start planting by year-end and 4,100ha next to its existing plantation in Solomon Islands where planting on 1,000ha would start soon.

“The prospects in the oil palm plantation business in PNG and Solomon Islands are good as there are still large tracts of land,’’ Ali said after the company AGM yesterday.

Kulim currently has some 83,000ha planted with oil palm in Malaysia, PNG and Solomon Islands, and plans to double its combined planted area in PNG and Solomon Islands in 10 years. Read the rest of this entry »

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Business Times

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

AMSTERDAM: Growth in world production of palm kernel oil is set to slow to 4-5 per cent in the 2008/09 season, from a 13 per cent growth rate in the previous season, Hamburg-based oilseeds analysts Oil World said yesterday.

Oil World said palm kernel oil production in Indonesia may approach 2.2 million tonnes this season, while Malaysia’s production is seen only marginally exceeding last season’s 2.1 million tonnes.

“Palm kernel oil production has been affected by the downturn of the biological palm oil (and kernel) yield cycle in Southeast Asia, which started in late 2008 and is likely to draw to an end in mid-2009,” it said in its weekly report.

Oil World said Malaysian exports of palm kernel oil were expected to increase 9 per cent to 1.1 million tonnes this season, while Indonesian exports were seen up to 1.6 million tonnes from 1.4 million tonnes in the previous season.

Though demand for lauric oils has been hit by the economic crisis, palm kernel oil has benefited from coconut oil’s tight supply and high prices in 2008 and early 2009, Oil World said.

World imports of coconut oil are seen falling 11 per cent to a multi-year low of 1.8 million tonnes in October/September 2008/09, as consumers respond to the supply squeeze and the price premiums between coconut and palm kernel oil.

Coconut oil was quoted at US$830 a tonne for August/September shipment cif Rotterdam on Tuesday, while palm kernel oil was quoted at US$820 a tonne cif Rotterdam.
- Reuters

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SINGAPORE, May 25 — Despite the recent recovery in crude palm oil (CPO) prices, industry watchers said that the volatility seen last year looks set to remain, while the medium-term outlook remains uncertain.

To the listed planters here, this is important since some saw their bottom lines hit by the lower selling prices seen in previous quarters.

For example, Indofood Agri Resources reported a 55 per cent plunge in its net profit to 240 billion rupiah, while turnover dived 30 per cent for the three months ended March 31, 2009.

Golden Agri saw a 93.7 per cent plunge in net income to US$8.6 million (RM30 million). First Resources also suffered when its earnings slumped by 81.6 per cent to 57 billion rupiah (RM19.5 million) over the same period. Read the rest of this entry »

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The Star

Saturday – May 23, 2009

Following the commencement of Hovid Bhd’s new Carotech plant in Lumut, Perak, in January, capacity has increased from 90,000 to 120,000 tonnes of biodiesel per annum.

The positive impact of the higher capacity is already showing. For the quarter ended March 31, revenue increased 51% to RM80mil while net profit rose 72% to RM5.4mil.

Over the nine-month period, revenue increased 12% to RM168mil but it recorded a net loss of RM7mil compared with a net profit of RM13mil previously. Read the rest of this entry »

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The Star

Friday – May 22, 2009

Kuching

The state collected RM272mil in sales tax on palm oil last year.

This figure is nearly 65% higher compared to the RM165mil collected in 2007, said state Land Development Minister Datuk Dr James Masing.

He said the state had collected over RM708mil in such taxes since it was introduced in 2002.

Sarawak was the first state to impose such taxes.

Dr Masing said the state also collected over RM2mil in oil-palm plantation levies last year.

He said the state’s overall production of fresh fruit bunches jumped by 13% last year to 8.8 million tonnes while production of crude palm oil (CPO) soared by 19% to 1.9 million tonnes.

“The average production of CPO was 3.4 tonnes per hectare compared to the national average of 4.1 tonnes,’’ Dr Masing said, adding that the state’s total area with oil palm estates increased by 15% to 780,000ha last year.

About 54% of the planted areas are in the northern region.

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Thursday, May 21, 2009
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s imports of palm oil products fell up to 20 per cent in April and May on good stocks and easing demand but will pick up next month and in the run-up to the fasting month, an industry official said on Wednesday.

Carryover stock from over-buying in the January-March quarter, low intake in rural areas during the wheat harvesting season, and cheap supplies of canola oil squeezed demand for palm oil, said Rasheed Janmohammad, vice-chairman of the Pakistan Edible Oil Refiners Association.

“Because of this, there was between 15 and 20pc reduction in the import of palm oil, palm olien and crude palm oil in April and May,” Janmohammad told Reuters.

Pakistan, the world’s fourth-largest importer of vegetable oil, imports a mix of refined and crude palm oil from Malaysia and Indonesia, the world’s biggest producers. It consumes about 3 million tons of edible oils a year, but produces only 500,000-800,000 tons of cottonseed, rapeseed and sunflower, relying on imports to meet about 80pc of demand.

Pakistani traders went on a buying spree early this year after sharp price swings last year prompted them to delay purchases. The country imported 166,140 tons of palm oil in February and 158,880 tons in January, according to official data. Janmohammad said Pakistan had imported or ordered 780,000 tons of canola and sunflower oilseeds for the January to July period.

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