India may retain top slot in vegetable oil imports

MUMBAI: India is expected to continue as the largest importer of vegetable oil for at least the next 10 years, owing to slow growth of domestic output as compared to the demand, a top industry official said.
The size of the Indian oilseeds sector is estimated at $16.5 billion inclusive of exports and imports. India is the world’s fourth largest vegetable oil economy, the Solvent Extractors’ Association of India’s executive director BV Mehta said at a presentation on India’s Vegetable Oil Market in Kuala Lumpur.

India is a leading importer of vegetable oil in the world. During FY07, the EU was the world’s largest importers of 17 oils at 10 million tonne, followed by China at 8.6 million tonne and India in the third place at 5.4 million tonne. Each year, India consumes around 12-12.5 million tonne of various edible oils.

Currently, India accounts for 7.4% of the world oilseeds output, 6.1% of oilmeal production, 3.9% of oilmeal export, 5.8% of vegetable oil production, 11.2% of vegetable oil import and 9.3% of edible oil consumption.

Although edible oils are widely consumed, the per capita consumption is around 11 kg a year, considerably lower than in most developed countries. Palm oil and soyabean oil account for almost half of the country’s total edible oil consumption, followed by mustard oil, groundnut oil, cottonseed oil, rice bran oil and sunflower seed oil.

Mr Mehta said that the domestic vegetable oil production of 7-8 million tonne is not sufficient to meet the domestic demand. The trade policy reforms in the mid-1990s fuelled increase in edible oil imports, which now meet 40-45% of the country’s consumption requirement.

The composition of the import basket will, however, depend on relative prices of oils. Currently, crude palm oil/palmolein and crude soyabean oil are the favourites as they provide the lowest price option.

The demand for edible oils is expected to increase from the current level of 12 million tonne to 15.6 million tonne in FY10 and further to 21.3 million tonne by FY15. This assumes a per capita consumption increase of 4% and a population growth of 1.8%, which translates to an overall growth in demand at 6% per annum, Mr Mehta added. He said India will continue its dependence on imports to the extent of about 40% of its consumption requirement. The improvement in yields and the increase in area under cultivation will ensure that the domestic oilseed production is sufficient to meet 60% of consumption requirement.

Commenting on the current scenario of edible oil import by India, Mr Mehta said that from November 2006 to July 2007, India imported close to 3.3 million tonne of edible oils consisting of 2.2 million tonne of palm products and 1.1 million tonne of soft oils.

"The import volume increased by 8% over the same period of previous year. It is expected that during the three months (August-October), arrivals would be 500,000-600,000 tonne per month and the total imports would be 4.7 to 4.8 million tonne for the whole year compared to 4.4 million tonne last year (2005-06)."

“India imports mainly crude oil to utilise its own processing capacity and practically 97%-98% import is in crude form,” he said.

World business briefs: Thomson seeks OK for Reuters takeover

Thomson Corp. has asked European Union regulators to clear its $17.5 billion takeover of Reuters Group PLC, a deal that faces intense regulatory review because of competitive issues.

The European Commission set an initial deadline of Oct. 8 to examine the deal.

A merger would cut from three to two the number of major companies that sell information and trading systems to the financial services industry — a combined Reuters and Thomson and privately owned Bloomberg LP.

Bones found in beef

South Korea said it found bones in the latest shipment of American beef and will revoke import approval for the U.S. facility that processed it.

South Korea has banned bones in beef because of fears of mad cow disease. The meatpacking plant belongs to JBS Swift & Co. of Greeley, Colo., and is one of 36 U.S. plants originally authorized to handle meat for export to South Korea.

The South Korean ban affected the JBS Swift plant in Grand Island, Neb. The company will serve South Korean customers with meat processed at its plants in Utah and Texas.

Hyundai, union agree

Hyundai Motor Co. and its labor union agreed on a wage deal Tuesday, possibly averting a strike over annual salary negotiations for the first time in a decade.

Union leaders accepted Hyundai’s offer of a 5.8 percent increase in basic monthly salary for each worker, an increase in the annual bonus and a pair of separate lump-sum payments, the two sides said.

The deal is tentative and must be voted on Thursday by the union rank-and-file. The union has gone on strike every year but one since it was founded in 1987. Workers had walked off the job twice this year.

Iraqi oil pipeline opens

Iraq’s oil minister said crude oil began to flow from the country’s northern oil-rich Kirkuk region to a Turkish export terminal last week — for the first time since Saddam Hussein was toppled in 2003.

“We’re pumping between 300,000 to 400,000 barrels a day of Kirkuk crude to the Turkish export terminal of Ceyhan,” Hussain al-Shahristani told Dow Jones Newswires.

The pipeline — Iraq’s main export route from Kirkuk to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan — has been mostly closed because of sabotage since the U.S.-led war.

Howard Signs Up To Take World's Nuclear Waste

Howard signs Australia up to take world's nuclear waste with Global Nuclear Partnership
Prime Minister John Howard has signed Australia up to take the world's nuclear waste with the announcement this morning that the US will support Australia's bid to join the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership.

GNEP involves a small number of countries enriching uranium, leasing the nuclear fuel to other countries eager to develop nuclear power and taking back the radioactive spent fuel for reprocessing and disposal.

Howard signs Australia up to take world's nuclear waste with Global Nuclear Partnership

Prime Minister John Howard has signed Australia up to take the world's nuclear waste with the announcement this morning that the US will support Australia's bid to join the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership. will leave a toxic legacy for generations of Australians without solving dangerous climate change," said Greenpeace CEO Steve Shallhorn.

"Nuclear energy is not the solution to climate change.

"Nuclear energy still produces a significant greenhouse pollution and it will be at least ten years before new nuclear plants can be built when we need action on climate change now.

"Even in the extremely unlikely event that the world could double nuclear power output by 2050, it would only reduce greenhouse pollution by about 5%.

"It is more than 60 years since the first atom bomb was made but there is still no safe, long term solution to nuclear waste anywhere in the world.

"By signing us up to GNEP John Howard is taking the first step towards the imposition of an international nuclear waste dump in Australia," said Wilderness Society Acting Director Virginia Young.

"The entire purpose of GNEP is for countries to take back nuclear waste. It is simply not believable for the Government to claim that we could join GNEP but rule out an international nuclear waste dump.

"The United States desperately needs somewhere to put their nuclear waste after public opposition stopped their proposed dump at Yucca Mountain.

"The Australian Government has already rushed through legislation that for the first time allows Australia to import radioactive waste from overseas.

Will the world economy collapse?

I don’t spend much time in blogosphere. It was purely by accident that I came across The Big Picture blog, where Chris Laudani has posted interesting predictions by the world’s leading economists in the 1920s.


John Maynard Keynes said in 1927. “We will not have any crashes in our time.” Dr Irving Fisher, another distinguished economist, said on October 17, 1929. “Stock prices have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau.” US Treasury Secretary and Harvard Economic Society, among others, publicly shared their confidence.

They were reflecting on the state of the economy that was booming. It was a time when drivers and window cleaners eves-dropped on the conversations of their patrons to collect tips on shares. The DJ Index doubled from little less than 200 when Keynes made his prediction to almost 400 when Dr Fisher announced the high plateau of the state of the market. Within two weeks of Dr Fisher’s forecast, it had crashed by over 40% to reach 200 again. All those who had invested their savings from 1927 to 1929 were impoverished overnight. Several of them committed suicide. By 1933, the DJ Index lost 90% of its value from the day of Dr Fisher’s ‘high plateau’ proclamation to reach 40. Industrial production declined by two-thirds. The prices of farm land collapsed to nothing. The United States imposed high trade barriers, inviting retaliation by 25 other countries. Since Europe was dependent on exports to pay its World War I debts and Japan to be able to import the most basic necessities of life, high trade barriers devastated their economies. The Germans elected Hitler, a failed artist, to lead them. In Japan, too, nationalist extremism grew at a fast pace. The World War II followed from 1939 to 1945.

Why should one recall those dreadful days when the US economy has been growing at 3.5-4% almost since the beginning of this decade? Moreover aren’t these boom times in Asia, with China and India growing at 9%? Finally Germany and Japan are also on the recovery path. There is a big party going on. The bars of Pudong, Ginza and Colaba are packed with young people high on martinis. Housemaids in Asia and taxi drivers in Europe and North America can be seen soliciting stock market tips from their patrons. Housing prices are moving up, up and up. If Dr Fisher were alive, he would proclaim this time that the stock markets all over the world have not yet reached their plateau. There are miles to climb before they reach their peak.

The problem is that much of US recovery is made possible by high consumer spending, financed by debt, except in Q2 of 2007 when exports contributed significantly to growth. The US public debt has increased from $5.5 trillion at the time of President Bush’s first election to $9 trillion now and perhaps $10-11 trillion by the time he leaves. The US currency has been depreciated by 0.9 at the end of 2000 to almost 1.40 by the end of 2007 against Euro. If the US current account balance and external debt continue to expand, at some stage the fall of dollar, rise in interest rates and recession may prove to be difficult to avoid. The critical question is if the dollar will fall below 1.5 against Euro, and if it does, at what rate of dollar the creditors will press the panic button.

If the President who succeeds George Bush in January 2009 accords top priority to restoring order in trade and current account balances in well-coordinated steps with main trading partners and Fed holds the interest rates at the current level, it should be possible for the United States to restructure its economy slowly. It will be in the interest of China, Japan, India, Europe and main oil exporters to cooperate with the US to protect dollar and their export prospects in the long run. We can expect them to provide a rational response.

However, if the new President gets too trapped in a war to sort the economy out, the dollar can collapse in an unpredictable and violent manner. As most central banks have two third of their foreign exchange reserves in dollars– and the Chinese have already lost $300 billion for this sin – they will have no option but to switch from dollar holdings to other currencies or gold. This will create a run on the dollar, forcing individuals around the world with dollar holdings to lose their savings, leaving Federal Reserve with no option but to hike interest rates, inviting collapse of thousands of banks and recession in the United States. The failure of Doha talks is a clear indication that a strong recession in the United States (with reduction in demand for Chinese and European exports) will lead to a trade war. China’s fragile banking system may come under pressure, creating a spate of bankruptcies in that country. At such a time, if the leaders of Iran, Russia, and Venezuela decide not to quote oil contracts in dollars, there will be a complete collapse of the American economy also causing a severe damage to European and Asian economies.

Will the world economy collapse? The rational economic answer is – unlikely but not impossible. However, politics can be irrational and therein lays the danger. There is no consensus among economists about why the crash of 1927 took place. So, we may not have strong economic lessons to learn from that experience. However, lessons from politics that preceded and followed the crash are clear. If we want to avert a crash in the next decade or half, which can have several times more horrendous consequences than the one in the last century, we will need to get both our politics and economics right.

Alibaba's genie is out of the bottle

WHILE Australia congratulates itself on riding the China boom by digging resources out of the ground, the Asian giant has spawned a new generation of nimble-thinking, fast-paced entrepreneurs who are making history as they go.

One of the poster boys for the new China is Jack Ma, the founder of the world's largest business-to-business internet commerce company Alibaba, who is visiting Sydney this week as part of China's delegation to APEC.

Alibaba.com is the cyber version of the Canton Trade Fair - a giant internet import-export marketplace for businesses looking to source materials in China and around the world.

Selling anything from wedding gowns and toys to steel coils, ball bearings and Chinese garlic, Alibaba has 3.6 million users in 200 countries. The site covers 30 industries and more than 5000 different product categories.

Its corporate motto is "global trade starts here".

Ma has also extended his business into a Chinese version of eBay, called Taobao.com, which dominates consumer internet trading in China and has about 50 million customers throughout Asia, and has set up his own internet payment system, Ali.pal, which has 48 million customers. He has just launched another business selling cheap software for small businesses.

Along the way he also bought Yahoo's China business in a $1.2 billion deal in 2005 that saw Yahoo take a 40 per cent stake in his company, with Japan's Softbank taking another 28 per cent.

To understand Ma you have to understand where he comes from.

He lives in Hangzhou, the scenic capital of Zhejiang province, a region of 46 million people on the coast of China, just south of Shanghai, which has become one of the hothouses of the new Chinese entrepreneurs.

The birthplace of Chiang Kai-Shek, Zhejiang province has few natural resources but does have access to coastal shipping. It was traditionally regarded with some suspicion by the Communist leaders in Beijing, who didn't favour it with any great investment by state-owned industries.

Never dependent on the state, its hard-working citizens have thrived as China opened up to the world, providing opportunities for a rapidly growing manufacturing and textile base.

Hangzhou itself is consistently listed by Forbes magazine as one of the top places to do business in China. The Commonwealth Bank has had a 19.9 per cent stake in the Hangzhou City Commercial Bank since April 2005.

The young Jack Ma wanted to be a teacher and was keen to learn English. He would hang around the hotels of Hangzhou and offer free tours of the city to foreign visitors.

One of these was a young Australian from Newcastle, north of Sydney. They became friends and Ma, whose plan was still to become a teacher, eventually visited Australia in 1985.

The visit, he says, opened his eyes to the fact that China was not the centre of the world and that there were opportunities to learn from the West.

With his sophisticated English skills, he was sent to the US in the early 90s by a Chinese company wanting to collect money owed by an American company.

That visit opened his eyes to the internet. He came back to China and tried to tell his mates back home in Hangzhou it was time to get aboard this amazing new invention.

They thought he was mad but he went ahead and founded what he thinks is China's first commercial internet business, the China Pages, which contained websites of small businesses in the region.

"I decided to try it although I knew nothing about the technology and had no people," he said in an interview with The Australian this week. "I called myself like a blind man riding the back of a blind tiger," says Ma, an unassuming man with an impish face.

He sold that business and worked in Beijing for a while, heading an internet company for the Government, before deciding to go out on his own again in 1999 with Alibaba. This was the first internet site that allowed businesses from around the world to look for sourcing partners in China.

As the business thrived, he did not hesitate to expand into other areas, taking on eBay with his own company, Taobao.

When he found that payment for online trading was an issue in a country where there are only about 30 million credit card users, he founded his version of Pay.pal, called Ali.pal.

Then there was the Yahoo deal.

Like other new Chinese entrepreneurs, Ma did not let anything constrain him: not history, his lack of formal training in the internet business, or the fact that the net was a foreign invention that he knew nothing about.

Ma is typical of many very successful self-made Asian entrepreneurs who approach life from a very different point of view than the more hidebound Western businesspeople.

They don't bother about defining themselves or acquiring the right skills to approach a task. They don't seek the advice of high-priced consultants or "experts" or take years formulating plans. They don't worry about pay and bonuses and complex share option deals.

They just go and do it. And keep on going, riding the blind tiger, like Ma, on the cutting edge of the China boom.

While Western businesses love to limit their operations - seeking to concentrate on narrowly defined markets - self-made Asian business people often operate conglomerates, cheerfully moving into a whole range of businesses, from trading and manufacturing to property and restaurants and travel.

In China today, particularly, there's a fast-moving open-mindedness and a freedom from tradition that leaps beyond the thinking of "New World" countries such as Australia and America.

Ma wants Alibaba, which is set to list its B2B business on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, to become the world's largest internet company and a member of the Fortune 500.

Ma's assistant during his Australian trip is Brian Junling Li, Alibaba's vice-president of corporate strategy. He was working in Beijing for Motorola a few years ago before he was swept up in the Ma story and joined the Alibaba group.

Brian is proud of the fact that he was born in Hunan Province, the birthplace of Chairman Mao. He also has a PhD in manufacturing from Stanford University in California.

These are the business leaders of the New New World.

Catch them if you can.

Import Dependency Threatens Food Security

Tajikistan looks set to meet its target for this year’s grain harvest, but NBCentralAsia analysts say that it will still not be enough to meet domestic needs and the government must reduce its dependence on imports by reforming agriculture at home.

The agriculture ministry has said farmers are on course to meet this year’s state target of around 500,000 tons of grain, according to reports from the Asia Plus news agency.

But official statistics show that Tajikistan needs 800,000 tons of grain to feed its people, plus a further 700,000 tons for livestock fodder.

Domestic harvests do not even meet half of the country’s needs and some 700,000 tons of grain is imported every year, mainly from Kazakhstan.

More than 60 per cent of the population lives on less than one US dollar a day, and cheap bread and other grain products make up the bulk of people’s diet.

This summer, a general rise in world grain prices and a lull in flour milling during the harvest season forced up the price of flour in Tajikistan by almost 40 per cent, leaving many families without enough food.

Analysts polled by NBCentralAsia say that Tajikistan must reduce its dependency on food imports and bring domestic agriculture up to modern standards to guarantee affordable food supplies.

Farrukh Abduvaseyev, an expert from Tajikistan’s Academy of Agricultural Sciences, says the country’s heavy reliance on imports is making the domestic food crisis worse. Imports are seen as an alternative to domestic production and so very little is being done to develop the agricultural sector.
Saodat Soibnazarova, an analyst at the Centre for Strategic Studies, explains that the quality of people’s diet has declined since staple foodstuffs like bread became more expensive.

The state lacks the resources to increase grain production, and this is unlikely to increase in the next few years, she said.

Murod Aminjanov, an analyst with a European Union project supporting state agricultural policy, explains that grain from Tajikistan is poor quality because of the hot climate, declining milling industry and backward farming methods. Even so, he argues that local producers could grow enough good quality grain to feed the whole country if the entire sector underwent reform.

Many farmers do not know how to tend crops properly or have enough experienced hands to help, explains NBCentralAsia economic analyst Hojimahmad Umarov. The irrigation system is also poor in many areas and farmers do not always have access to fertilisers.

Aminjanov says farmers need to be taught how to use modern farming methods, and to be given better machinery, irrigation and higher quality seeds to work with.

The estimated cost of the kind of agricultural reforms that could allow Tajikistan to meet its own food needs is put at at least a billion dollars.

(NBCentralAsia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region)

Australia urges 'powerful signal' from US on trade talks

SYDNEY (AFP) — Australia called Tuesday on the United States to send a "powerful signal" on cutting farm subsidies to break a six-year deadlock in talks on freeing up global trade.

Australian Trade Minister Warren Truss issued the call after meeting with US Trade Representative Susan Schwab ahead of a summit of 21 Asia-Pacific economies that make up nearly 50 percent of world trade.

Truss, who also separately met with other regional counterparts, said a US farm bill that will be considered by the Democrat-dominated US Congress in the next few months was a concern.

His comments came as World Trade Organisation (WTO) envoys meet in Geneva over the next three weeks in a bid to break the long-standing deadlock in the so-called Doha round of negotiations on cutting tariffs and subsidies.

"Other countries, particularly agricultural producing countries, would like to see the United States make positive steps toward reducing its farm support and that would send a very powerful signal for the rest of the world," Truss told reporters.

"So yes we want the US to take action in relation to farm subisidies both in the context of its current farm bill but also in relation to the Doha round."

Truss said a US farm bill that "increases support or one which maintains some of the existing levels of farm subsidies is an unhelpful signal."

However, he said he was encouraged that Washington "knows that a Doha round would have to involve reductions in US farm support in return for improved market access in other parts of the world."

Truss said it was also important that other countries and trading blocs made corresponding concessions to Washington.

"It's unreasonable to expect one country to do all the heavy lifting.

"The US has got a right to expect that other countries will make appropriate concessions and also address the other non-agricultural market access issues which are important to concluding the round."

Schwab is in Sydney for a meeting of trade ministers of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum ahead of the weekend leaders' summit.

Trading nations have spent the past month mulling over compromise proposals on farm subsidies and import tariffs, a key stumbling block in WTO talks which also encompass global trade in industrial goods and services.

The Doha round, launched in the Qatari capital in 2001, seek to cut import duties and subsidies primarily to help developing countries take advantage of expanding global trade.

WTO members are at odds over the extent of new cuts in barriers to trade in agriculture, industrial goods and services amid cross-cutting disagreements between rich and poor countries over the concessions they need to make.

"Because we represent 50 percent of the world's trade we have a key role to provide impetus and encouragement to the negotiations," Truss said.

"If we demonstrate that we remain politically resolved to achieve a good outcome at Doha then that will certainly fire up the negotiations and ensure people take a constructive view to the tasks ahead."

While "we all know that it will be difficult," he said, "if there is a firm commitment and a vision towards what can be achieved, that outcome is still achievable."

Truss said a raft of bilateral and and other trade deals in various stages of discussion among APEC members were useful "building blocks," but could not constitute a "Plan B" in case the Doha round fails.

World Energy Solutions Signs Research Agreement with University of Florida to Commercialize Air Purification System

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., Sept. 4, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- World Energy Solutions, Inc. (OTCBB:WEGY), a company focused on energy conservation technologies and environmental sustainability, reports that it has signed a Research Agreement with the University of Florida for the design of the company's 'Pure Air' filtration system. Early prototypes of the 'Pure Air' technology have shown to remove 99% of all targeted compounds.


The Research Agreement is being sponsored by the University's Environmental Systems Commercial Space Technology Center (ES-CSTC) at Gainesville, FL, under the initiative of its Director, Mr. William Sheehan. Mr. Sheehan and his team have agreed to assist the company in identifying and pursuing the commercialization of the 'Pure Air' technology. ES-CSTC member, Ms. Kristen Riley, formerly of NASA, will be in charge of identifying industrial and commercial applications for the technology and leading its marketing efforts. The 'Pure Air' technology is a derivative of NASA-sponsored research at the University.

The NASA Johnson Space Center funded the effort through its Advanced Life Support program which focuses on the need to revitalize air for long-duration space flights.

"This technology has the potential to become a market leader. It will be an efficient and economical unit which can remove 99.9% of all biological and chemical contaminants in air, as well as filtering normally occurring dust and smoke particles. The treated air will be almost 100% sterile," stated World Energy Solutions Inc. CEO Ben Croxton.

Dr. David Mazyck of the University of Florida and Technical Lead for the ES-CSTC will provide the design details based on pre-production units and previous experimental models. After production, the University will evaluate the commercial readiness of the 'Pure Air' technology.

The 'Pure Air' prototype is expected to be completed within 3 weeks and be ready for trials by September 25, 2007. Assembly will be carried out at World Energy Solutions' Research & Development laboratory, adjacent to the company's Head Office in St Petersburg, FL. Testing is estimated to take an additional 1-2 months at which time the prototype will be exhibited to manufacturers of 'pure air' equipment.

About World Energy Solutions

World Energy Solutions, Inc. (OTCBB:WEGY) is an Energy Services Company and electronics manufacturer. WES's primary business focus is the development of technology for lowering electrical, gas and water usage for commercial, government and residential facilities. As a pioneer in the manufacturing of the finest TVSS systems available in the market today, WES uses cutting-edge technologies and unsurpassed design standards to provide its customers with full lifetime warranties on its products.

For more information about WES please visit its website at www.wesinc.net

Forward-Looking Statements Certain matters discussed in this press release are "forward-looking statements." These forward-looking statements can generally be identified as such because the context of the statement will include words such as "expects," "should," "believes," "anticipates" or words of similar import. Similarly, statements that describe World Energy Solutions' future plans, objectives or goals are also forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, including the financial performance of World Energy Solutions, which could cause actual results to differ materially from those currently anticipated. Although World Energy Solutions believes the expectations reflected in any forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, they cannot give any assurance that their expectations will be attained. Shareholders, potential investors and other readers are urged to consider these factors carefully in evaluating any forward-looking statements. Certain factors could cause results and conditions to differ materially from those projected in these forward-looking statements, and some of these factors are discussed below. These factors are not exhaustive. New factors, risks and uncertainties may emerge from time to time that may affect the forward-looking statements made herein. These forward-looking statements are only made as of the date of this press release and World Energy Solutions does not undertake any obligation to publicly update such forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.