Business Times

Thursday – May 21, 2009

HAMBURG: Malaysian October 2008/September 2009 palm oil output is likely to reach only 17.8 million tonnes Hamburg-based oilseeds analysts Oil World forecast yesterday.

This was down from its previous estimate of 18.0 million tonnes.

The cut was made following surprisingly low Malaysian output in April, Oil World said. But Malaysian output would still be up on the 17.5 million tonnes produced in 2007/08.

Malaysia and Indonesian are the world’s leading palm oil exporters.

“We still expect Malaysian production to surpass the year-ago level in coming months but the increase anticipated for the full season is sharply below average at only one per cent,” it said.

“The sharp seasonal growth of production next quarter should allow a recovery of Malaysian palm oil stocks from the current low level to roughly 1.6 million tonnes by end-September, still down sharply from 1.95 million tonnes the year before.”

Malaysian April palm oil stocks were estimated on May 11 at 1.29 million tonnes by the country’s palm oil board.

Oil World’s October/September 2008/09 Indonesian palm oil production estimate remains unchanged at 20.2 to 20.3 million tonnes, up seven per cent on the season but again below the growth seen in recent years.

“World demand for palm oil continues to grow sharply this season, despite the production slowdown in Malaysia and Indonesia,” it said. “We forecast an increase in world consumption by 3.9 million tonnes this season, partly to compensate for the pronounced decline in soyoil supplies and use.” – Reuters

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Thursday – May 21, 2009

by Hanim Adnan

Shah Alam

Cognis Oleochemicals (M) Sdn Bhd will be known as Emery Oleochemicals (M) Sdn Bhd under its rebranding exercise. The world’s largest oleochemicals giant is 50:50 owned by Sime Darby Plantation Sdn Bhd and Thailand-based PTT Chemical International Pte Ltd, following a joint-venture agreement back in July last year.

Following that, PTT Chemical completed its 50% acquisition in Cognis Oleochemicals from Cognis BV, a subsidiary of global speciality chemicals supplier Cognis GmbH of Germany in November last year.

Emery Oleochemicals executive director Dr Kongkrapan Intarajang said the group aimed to be a global leader in oleochemicals and derivative products. “We are open to various options, including mergers and acquisitions, or continue to build up organic growth to ensure a steady and sustainable income flow,” he told reporters after the rebranding ceremony yesterday.

Last year, the group posted a 7% increase in sales to 776 million euros (US$1.14bil). Intarajang said the partnership between Sime Darby Plantation and PTT Chemical would fully integrate the upstream and downstream capabilities of both groups. Read the rest of this entry »

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Business Times

Wednesday – May 20, 2009

HAMBURG: Malaysian October 2008/September 2009 palm oil output is likely to reach only 17.8 million tonnes Hamburg-based oilseeds analysts Oil World forecast yesterday.

This was down from its previous estimate of 18.0 million tonnes.

The cut was made following surprisingly low Malaysian output in April, Oil World said. But Malysian output would still be up on the 17.5 million tonnes produced in 2007/08.

Malaysia and Indonesian are the world’s leading palm oil exporters.

“We still expect Malaysian production to surpass the year-ago level in coming months but the increase anticipated for the full season is sharply below average at only one per cent,” it said.

“The sharp seasonal growth of production next quarter should allow a recovery of Malaysian palm oil stocks from the current low level to roughly 1.6 million tonnes by end-September, still down sharply from 1.95 million tonnes the year before.”

Malaysian April palm oil stocks were estimated on May 11 at 1.29 million tonnes by the country’s palm oil board.

Oil World’s October/September 2008/09 Indonesian palm oil production estimate remains unchanged at 20.2 to 20.3 million tonnes, up seven per cent on the season but again below the growth seen in recent years.

“World demand for palm oil continues to grow sharply this season, despite the production slowdown in Malaysia and Indonesia,” it said. “We forecast an increase in world consumption by 3.9 million tonnes this season, partly to compensate for the pronounced decline in soyoil supplies and use.” – Reuters

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Tuesday – May 19, 2009

MUMBAI: India, the world’s biggest buyer of vegetable oils after China, may not restore taxes on imports of crude palm oil (CPO) after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government won parliamentary elections, a traders’ group said.

“We don’t expect any major changes in government policy as far as edible oil industry is concerned,” B.V. Mehta, executive director at the Solvent Extractors Association of India, a group of 800 edible importers and processors, said. “Taxes on palm oil won’t be imposed as prices have gone up sharply.”

India ended duty on crude palm oil and crude soyabean oils in April last year to boost supplies. A 20 per cent tax on crude soyabean oil imports in November and scrapped it in March.

India buys palm oil from Indonesia and Malaysia, and soyabean oil from Argentina and Brazil. – Bloomberg

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Saturday – May 16, 2009

CPO FUTURES

Crude palm oil futures contracts on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives closed mostly lower yesterday as investors trimmed their positions amid strong export data and firmer Chicago Board Of Trade (CBOT) soyaoil, dealers said.

They said the market, which was traded higher in the afternoon, closed lower on profit-taking.

“In the afternoon, investors took the cue from the higher CBOT soyaoil trade on tight stocks but profit-taking set in on concerns over the global economic development,” a dealer said.

According to cargo surveyor, Intertek Testing Services, exports of Malaysian palm oil products for May 1-15 increased by 1.7 per cent to 624,052 tonnes from 613,677 tonnes shipped between Apr 1-15.

Cargo surveyor Societe Generale de Surveillance said exports of Malaysian palm oil products for May 1-15 rose 8 per cent to 629,364 tonnes from 582,823 tonnes shipped between Apr 1-15.

May 2009 contract increased by RM49 to end at RM2,849 per tonne, June 2009 dropped RM31 to RM2,731, July 2009 fell RM19 to RM2,665 and August 2009 eased RM43 to RM2,612.

Volume decreased to 14,855 lots from 17,659 lots Thursday. Open interests, however, increased to 75,553 contracts from 75,467 contracts previously. On the physical market, May South dropped to RM2,800 per tonne from RM2,860 Thursday.

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Saturday – May 16, 2009

First things first, what is a genome? The website of the US National Centre for Biotechnology Information has a simple explanation. Read the rest of this entry »

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Saturday – May 16, 2009

Collaboration is essential in science. The notion of a professor coming up with an earth-shattering discovery all by himself is highly unlikely. In this community, it is the norm to share information, pool resources and undertake projects jointly.

For one thing, complex scientific work and research often demands an integration of expertise from various disciplines. We can see that with the oil palm genome projects in Malaysia, for example. Read the rest of this entry »

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Thursday – May 14, 2009

by Hanim Adnan

Petaling Jaya

MPOB and other companies yet to achieve similar breakthrough

Sime Darby Bhd’s major breakthrough to completely sequence, assemble and annotate the oil palm genome with 93.8% completeness will be a tough act to follow by the palm oil custodian, the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) and other plantation companies. Read the rest of this entry »

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