Sabah set to become centre of downstream industries using oil palm residue
Posted on July 4, 2011, Monday
KUALA LUMPUR: Lahad Datu is set to become the nation’s centre for downstream economic activities that use oil palm residue for, among others, to manufacture pulp and paper.
The vast quantities of palm biomass available in this region is also suitable for the manufacture of fibre reinforcing composites, block board, plywood, moulded particle board and medium density fibreboard.
“There are also opportunities for the manufacture of various types of vitamins and supplements as well as personal care products such as soap and shampoo, candles, crayon, detergents, cosmetics, lubricants and polyurethane,” said the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM) in a statement yesterday.
The federation yesterday organised a seminar in Sandakan to expose entrepreneurs to the vast potential existing in oil palm waste downstream downstream industries in Sabah.
“There are over six million tonnes of empty fruit bunches annually from Sabah palm oil mills and this is a huge amount of raw materials for a host of new industries,” FMM small-and-medium industries committee chairman Tan Sri Soong Siew Hoong was quoted as saying in the statement.
Saying that suitable land and infrastructure have been provided for this purpose, Soong added that vast raw materials were readily available.
“Within a 50-kilometre radius of Lahad Datu, there are 52 palm oil mills and around Sandakan, there are just as many,” he added.
Located in Lahad Datu is the Palm Oil Industrial Cluster (POIC), a project undertaken by the Sabah government, to encourage palm oil and palm fibre biomass downstream industries.
Soong said under the first two phases of the POIC, a total of 460 hectares had been developed with infrastructure and utilities in place, with a jetty for 6,000 to 30,000 deadweight tonnage vessels.
“Eighty-five per cent of these industrial lots have been taken up by investors.
“Phase 3A with an area of 218.8 hectares is currently being developed,” he added.
Soong also said there were major opportunities in fuel and power supply industries involving biodiesel, biogas from effluent ponds and energy from empty fruit bunches as well as other oil palm biomass.
Potential entrepreneurs were also invited to provide fertilisers for oil palm plantations as well as other services related to crop integration, inter cropping, pest and fungus control, higher levels of planting materials in the form of tissue culture, germinated seed preparation as well as breeding, added Soong. — Bernama
