Thursday, 17 January 2013

Plantation Sector - Land moratorium in East Kalimantan? OVERWEIGHT


- According to the Jakarta Globe, the provincial government of East Kalimantan is planning to issue a moratorium on new palm oil plantations starting this year. 

- Yayan Sabianoor who heads the East Kalimantan permit and investment board said that there have been so many permits issued and hence, the board will temporarily halt the issuance of new permits for new palm oil plantations. 

- Yayan added that the moratorium would be implemented this year but did not give an exact date. 

- He said that permits were issued in East Kalimantan for 2.4mil ha of palm oil plantations last year but by the end of the year, only one million ha were planted. 

- Yayan added that the permits will be issued again only after all that have been issued have actually been used and the oil palm trees have been planted. He said that issuance of new permits in the future will take into consideration land availability. Priority is for food crops.  

- This is not positive for plantation companies looking to expand their landbank. Instead of East Kalimantan, plantation companies would have to focus on Central and West Kalimantan. In the longer-term, capping of investments in palm oil plantations would result in softer supply of palm oil.  

- Among the Malaysian plantation companies, the last market transaction for plantation land in East Kalimantan was in March 2012. Kuala Lumpur Kepong proposed to acquire 7,400ha of land for RM3.6mil. The land already had Hak Izin Lokasi. 

- Genting Plantations’ acquisition of about 65,000ha  of land in Central Kalimantan in October 2012, valued the land at roughly RM4,285/ha. 

- Among the Singapore-listed planters, Bumitama Agri proposed to acquire about 14,000ha of land in Central and West Kalimantan in October 2012 at a price range of RM6,000/ha to RM8,000/ha. 

- Acquisition cost of Bumitama’s land was higher than its peers as part of the land had already been planted with young oil palm trees. Average age of the trees was between one and three years old.   

Source: AmeSecurities

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