• Bloomberg said that Garuda Indonesia is planning for ground and flight tests using palmbased jet fuel after completing trials on the CFM56-7b machine used in the B737-800 fleet. The trial uses Pertamina’s jet fuel known as J2.4, which contains 2.4% of RBD palm kernel oil.

• Reuters reported that the World Bank Group’s private sector lending arm is returning to palm oil financing after a 14-year suspension with a proposal for a syndicated loan of up to US$350mil to develop palm plantations in Gabon under revised sustainability rules. An International Finance Corp (IFC) spokesman said that the goals of the loan proposal for Olam Palm Gabon SA “include supporting rural employment and nurturing sustainable development of Gabon’s agriculture sector”. Olam Palm Gabon is a joint venture, which is 60%-owned by Singapore-based Olam Group and 40%-owned by the Gabon government. IFC said that the loan proceeds will be used to construct a biodiesel plant and refinery at the Owendo port, a new palm oil mill with a kernel crushing plant and biogas-cogeneration plants.

• According to the Malay Mail, the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security is actively implementing various strategies to reduce the country’s dependency on food imports. The measures include setting up a grain corn cultivation industry. A government official said that the cooperation of all parties is crucial to obtain the land needed to increase corn production. Corn is vital to Malaysia’s livestock industry as poultry farming is heavily dependent on corn as feed.

• Biofuels International reported that Transdev has completed switching its fleet across its 10 operating centres in Yorkshire, Lancashire and Greater Manchester to a high-blend biodiesel fuel. The biodiesel fuel that will be used is B15. In summer, the biodiesel content will rise to 25%. Fuel provider, Argent Fuels predicts that Transdev can expect to cut its emission by 3,612 tonnes of carbon per year, which is the equivalent of taking 1,745 cars off the roads every year.

• Bloomberg reported that China’s agro-industrial group, Hunan No 6 Construction has begun building a palm oil processing plant in Ivory Coast. The plant will cost US$200mil and have a processing capacity of 100,000 tonnes per year. 500 workers will be employed at the construction site.

• FastMarkets quoted a local consultant, Safras and Mercado as saying that Brazilian soybean exports are expected to reach a record 99mil tonnes in 2024F, a 4% increase from the 95mil tonnes estimated for 2023E. Soybean output is projected to be 163.2mil tonnes in 2023E/2024F, up 5% from 156.1mil tonnes in 2022/2023F. Ending stocks are expected to increase by 70% to 13.8mil tonnes in 2024F, up from 8.1mil tonnes in 2023E.

• Jakarta Globe cited Indonesia’s Foreign Minister as saying that Portugal is shipping in more palm products from Indonesia despite the EU’s tough stance on the commodity. The minister added that Portugal’s palm imports from Indonesia increased by 77% from 2019 to 2022. The rise resulted from incentives for importing palm derivatives as biodiesel feedstock.

Source: AmInvest Research - 7 Aug 2023