THE Covid-19 outbreak in China and India’s restrictions on palm oil import have little impact on Sime Darby Plantation Bhd, but the company expects a moderate rise in crude palm oil (CPO) price this year, said managing director Mohamad Helmy Othman Basha.
“For Sime Darby Plantation, we do not sell palm oil that much to China in the first place … our market is mainly within this region and India, but we did have one shipment (to China) in January, but that was the last shipment.
“We did not face any problems with that shipment but obviously after that I was told we hardly see demand coming from China, which I believed have put pressure on the CPO price,” he told reporters at the announcement of the company’s 2019 financial performance.
Mohamad Helmy said that as of January 2020, the CPO price was RM2,700 per tonne but it has now gone down to below RM2,500 per tonne.
According to him, the industry, be it in Malaysia or Indonesia, was considered fortunate as the production of CPO was lower.
In January, the Malaysian Palm Oil Board announced the country’s palm oil stocks stood at 1.7 million tonnes. – Feb 28, 2020, Bernama
