KUCHING: It seems that the land of resources is gradually booming.
Major cities across Sarawak have witnessed vast development and the momentum is building up rapidly.
Blessed with an abundance of natural resources, the appeal has attracted major corporations to invest into Sarawak and bid for contracts to extract the resources for their long term benefits.
With more investments pouring in by large corporations, this is expected to spur developments and provide more jobs as well as enhance the economic growth of the state.
To note, plantation giant Felda Global Ventures Holdings Bhd (FGV) has recently proposed to acquire Singapore-based Asian Plantations Ltd (APL) which has a significant plantation estates landbank in Bintulu and Miri.
In a filing to Bursa Malaysia, FGV said APL owns about 24,622 hectares of oil palm plantation through the latter’s five wholly-owned estates within the northern region of Sarawak.
The proposed acquisition of APL for 120 million pounds or approximately RM628 million will bolster the company’s future growth.
FGV pointed out that the proposed acquisition will enable the company to maintain its leading position in the palm oil and agribusiness industry.
With the acquisition of APL, FGV will become the world’s third largest plantation operator by hectarage with more than 450,000 hectares in Malaysia and Indonesia.
FGV noted that the group is the largest crude palm oil (CPO) producer in the world with approximately 18 per cent of Malaysia’s production and seven per cent of world’s production.
FGV president and chief executive officer Mohd Emir Mavani Abdullah said, “FGV continues to seek opportunities to strengthen our leading position in the oil palm plantation business, through organic and inorganic growth.
“We are attracted to APL’s strong operational performance and high quality estates and are confident they will bolster FGV’s lead in sustainable palm oil production.
“The acquisition complements the group’s long term expansion strategy.
“We are relentless in our pursuit to be part of the world’s top 10 agribusiness players and a leader in the sectors of palm oil, rubber and sugar – from planting to processing, logistics to export in 2020,” he said.
Mohd Emir observed that APL’s estates in Sarawak is operated by its 60 metric tonne (MT) per hour palm oil mill, which is located within the estates and easily accessible to the deep water port of Bintulu.
He said, FGV plans to double the productivity of the mill once the acquisition of APL is completed.
Apart from that, Mohd Emir said,”We will derive synergies across FGV and APL.
“Through the sharing of common resources and expertise, we will enhance our operations and optimise costs.
“These are expected to contribute positively towards the performance of the enlarged FGV group,” he said.
Definitely, FGV’s investment has demonstrated that there are significant value to be derived from Sarawak.
Whilst, FGV is interested in the oil palm plantation estates in Sarawak, two other companies with major operations in the oil and gas (O&G) industry have been exploring for more minerals, especially gas offshore Sarawak through their respective joint ventures.
SapuraKencana Petroleum Bhd (SapuraKencana) through its unit SapuraKencana Energy Sarawak Incorporation has discovered huge amount of gas offshore Sarawak.
The discoveries of gas with a projection of more than three trillion standard cubic feet (tscf) from five wells has been touted as one of the largest in terms of volume throughout Malaysia.
As for another O&G player, Dialog Group Bhd (Dialog), the company had in late May accepted a contract from ROC Oil (Sarawak) Sdn Bhd through its wholly-owned subsidiary Dialog Resources Sdn Bhd for a farm-out of 20 per cent of ROC’s participating interest in the production sharing contract (PSC) for three fields namely D35, D21 and J4 located offshore Sarawak.
Upon completion of the due diligence process for the farm-out recently, the company in an announcement to Bursa Malaysia on September 5 said Dialog’s participation in the PSC is part of its strategy to grow its upstream assets and to continue to develop its upstream capabilities in the O&G activities which include the rejuvenation and re-development of mature oil fields and the development of marginal fields.
Dialog believed that this development is expected to create a robust platform for generating long term sustainable revenue from O&G production.
The increased upstream activities will provide further opportunities for Dialog to participate in the provision of services in the value chain of the field development cycle, particularly in relation to the provision of upstream engineering & operations and maintenance services.
Additionally, the company pointed out that the strengthening of the upstream capabilities will lead to an increase in Dialog’s sources of sustainable and recurring income in the future and reinforces its position as a leading integrated technical services provider.
Given more opportunities across various industries which Sarawak’s economy is gradually opening up, this will generate a higher interest for investment particularly among foreign investors.
Sarawak an attractive investment destination
The state’s attractiveness in bringing investment is not without its merits.
So far, Sarawak has ranked the highest, in terms of value for the category of foreign investment in the manufacturing sector brought into the state.
According to the latest statistics from Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA), Sarawak’s total approved investment for foreign investment in the manufacturing sector from January to May amounting to RM7.45 billion, far outweighed others states which has a figure of less than RM4.5 billion.
As for domestic investment in the manufacturing sector, Sarawak still need to play catch up as over the same time, the state has managed to draw some RM315.77 million compared with the highest of RM10.84 billion recorded by Johor.
In spite of that, Sarawak’s position for investment approved for the manufacturing sector has improved one notch to second for January to May this year from third for the full year of 2013.
For the period of January to May, there was a total of nine projects approved against 109 projects in Selangor and 80 in Johor.
As for Johor, the ‘pull factor’ for the high amount of domestic investment could be attributed to the progress and development of the Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development (RAPID) project in Pengerang, Johor.
MIDA’s executive director, manufacturing development (non-resource), Datuk Wan Hashim Wan Jusoh said the approved investments in the manufacturing sector from January to May were driven mainly from the electrical and electronics sector as well as stronger contributions from the oil and gas sector especially petrochemical and chemical-based products.
Petrochemical is coming strongly because of the Pengerang’s RAPID project. It (RAPID) is huge, one petrochemical project requires investment of around RM2 billion to RM3 billion.
“For January-May, investment in petroleum products including petrochemicals jumped to RM6.76 billion compared with RM6.17 billion for the whole of 2013,” he was reported as saying during a briefing.
For Sarawak, Minister of Industrial Development Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan said the state has pulled in investments totalling RM7.3 billion from January to March 2014.
Out of the RM7.3 billion investment received, RM7.1 billion (97 per cent) came from foreign investment in which the major sources of foreign investment came from Japan with investment of RM5.1 billion in chemicals and chemical products and RM1.2 billion in basic metal products.
He observed that in the first quarter of 2014, the State Industrial Coordination Committee (ICC) has approved 23 projects with a total investment of RM105.9 million, mainly in wood-based industry and services.
On another development, Awang Tengah said Sarawak is also promoting its resource-based industry namely timber and oil palm.
He noted that those industries have tremendous opportunities for investors to invest in downstream processing activities.
“In terms of trade, oil palm and timber are ranked third and fourth largest export earning for Sarawak.
“The biggest is liquefied natural gas (LNG) followed by petroleum and petroleum products,” he said.
Similarly, Malaysian Rating Corporation Bhd (MARC), an economic rating agency in its latest report said although Malaysia recorded slower economic growth in 2013, the value of approved manufacturing investment in Sarawak surged by 75 per cent to RM8.3 billion as compared to RM4.7 billion recorded for the full year of 2012. In the first three months this year, MARC said Sarawak registered the highest level of approved manufacturing investment worth RM7.3 billion, constituting about 42.8 per cent of the total manufacturing investment approved in Malaysia.
Out of the total of RM7.3 billion, the ratings agency said about 97 per cent or RM7.1 billion were from foreign investors with the remainder from local investors. This concurred with MIDA’s statistics and Awang Tengah’s earlier comment that Sarawak has generated a higher amount of investment.
Clearly, this shows that Sarawak is on the foreign investor’s radar and is among their preferred destination.
Ensuing, MARC explained that the continuation of several infrastructure projects implemented under the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE) contributed to the large investment inflow, outpacing Selangor and Johor which traditionally secured the largest amount of investments resulting from their favourable infrastructure and ecosystem.
SCORE, which involves the development of five key areas in Sarawak by 2030, is expected to be the major growth catalyst for the state for the next 20 to 30 years, as the state government is committed to develop the state to achieve high-income status by 2020.
More private investments to spur economic growth
Earlier this year, Second Finance Minister Dato Sri Wong Soon Koh said Sarawak’s economy is projected to grow by five per cent in 2014.
He believed the higher economic growth compared to the past three years will be contributed by all sectors with the manufacturing, services and construction sectors acting as key drivers of growth.
Wong observed that the services sector is projected to expand by 6.6 per cent from both domestic consumption and investment activities.
He pointed out that with the ‘Visit Sarawak 2014’ campaign, tourism-related services sub-sector is anticipated to gain from tourist arrivals.
“The manufacturing sector is expected to grow at five per cent, led by improved external demand for resource-based sub-sectors in tandem with the gradual recovery in the global economy.
“As for construction sector, it is projected to continue with a firm expansion at 10.5 per cent consonant with rapid infrastructure development in the state,” Wong said in his winding up speech at the state legislative assembly sitting in May.
He observed the agriculture sector is projected to grow by 4.8 per cent this year due to expected higher production of palm oil and other food crops in line with the government’s efforts to ensure food security.
Additionally, the mining and quarrying sector in 2014 is expected to maintain its growth at 1.5 per cent with enhanced production of crude petroleum and natural gas from deep water and marginal fields.
On the national front, Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) during the announcement of the second quarter economic growth in the middle of August stated that private investment continued to register double-digit growth, expanded by 12.1 per cent in the second quarter of 2014 (2Q14) against 14.1 per cent in 1Q14, reflecting investment in the services and manufacturing sectors.
The central bank observed that major economic sectors has remained strong with the agriculture sector registered a strong growth rate of 7.1 per cent reflecting higher production of palm oil whilst the mining sector turned around to record a positive growth rate of 2.1 per cent, due to higher production of both natural gas and crude oil.
As for Sarawak, Wong believed that private investment is expected to record a strong growth of 12.8 per cent supported by government initiatives to accelerate private sector participation towards sustainable growth in Sarawak.
Public investment is expected to register a growth of 4.5 per cent attributed by the implementation of various infrastructure projects particularly in SCORE and rural areas.
Meanwhile, the research arm of TA Securities Holdings Bhd (TA Research) in a report dated September 8 said real private investment for Malaysia has been registering double-digit percentage gain for the past five years and hit RM40 billion in 2013.
TA Research said,”We expect this (double-digit) momentum to continue in 2014 and 2015 on the back of global economic recovery, rising foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows, improving business confidence and accelerated Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) projects to boost domestic capital expenditure especially in the oil and gas sector.
“In the first half of 2014 (1H14), FDI strengthened further to grow by 11.9 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) to RM18 billion.
“FDI were mainly channeled to the manufacturing and services sector, especially real estate.
“As it is, the prospects for FDI and domestic investment remained positive over the medium term.
“Forward looking economic indicators also signals positive trend going forward for manufacturing investment,” the research firm observed.
Hence, given the favourable investment climate, major corporations investing into Sarawak are poised to gain from their ventures.
Companies’ business plan for the rest of 2014
FGV
For FGV, the group has embarked on several strategies currently to fast track its growth as part of its plan to become the top ten global players in the plantation and agriculture industry over the next six years.
Mohd Emir said for the group’s plantation division, it aims to accelerate the process of improving the age profile of its palms through brownfield acquisitions to boost its fresh fruits bunches (FFB) yields.
He said FGV is targeting a more favourable age profile of oil palms of 12 years by 2019.
Mohd Emir noted FGV group’s priority building blocks include the pursuit of growth through mergers and acquisitions.
He pointed out that the plantation player’s approach is to go after opportunistic deals in high margin and high growth businesses.
FGV had on October 2013 completed the acquisition of Pontian United Plantations Bhd’s (Pontian) plantation estates.
The acquisition comprises 15,161 hectares of mostly matured oil palms, which in 2013 produced an average yield per hectare of 22.77 tonnes.
Therefore, the latest acquisition of APL by FGV could be seen as one of the steps for the company to move forward in the right direction to realise its long term goals.
Apart from that, Mohd Emir observed that FGV had also made several improvement initiatives to enhance the growth of the company over the past one year.
Those include implementation of new processes and the upgrading of boilers at its mills, which led to improved consistency and efficiency of mill operations.
SapuraKencana
Moving on to SapuraKencana, president and group chief executive officer (CEO) Tan Sri Shahril Shamsuddin said the acquisition of Newfield Malaysia, a leading regional independent exploration and production oil and gas company has strengthened the company’s presence in the upstream business.
Shahril noted the acquisition of Newfield Malaysia has given SapuraKencana an immediate foothold as an upstream operator in the O&G business.
He revealed that Newfield Malaysia after being incorporated into the company has since been renamed as SapuraKencana Energy Malaysia (SapuraKencana Energy). SapuraKencana Energy is providing full exploration, development and production capabilities as well as participating interests in eight PSC in both East and West Malaysia.
Shahril added SapuraKencana Energy’s assets has proven and probable reserves plus the company has an alliance arrangement to operate an oil field in East Malaysia.
On the latest gas discoveries by SapuraKencana’s unit, SapuraKencana Energy Sarawak Incorporation, Shahril said, “This last well (Bakong-1 Well in Block SK408 offshore Sarawak) ranks as one of the larger discoveries in Malaysia this year and has doubled the resources found in the block to-date.
“The excellent results of the drilling campaign confirmed the exploration model developed by the team at SapuraKencana Energy.
“It is a true testimony to the capability of the team in realising the full potential of the SK408 block,” he said.
Meanwhile, the new gas findings with an estimated gas amount of 1.5 tscf has been tipped as the biggest in terms of gross gas column, which is in excess of 600 metres in the primary target reservoir located within the Late Miocene Carbonate reservoirs.
The latest gas findings has brought the total gas discovered by the company to more than three tscf.
Slightly more than two months ago, SapuraKencana announced that the company had made discoveries of four wells which are Teja-1 (gross gas column of 219 metres, Gorek-1 (gross gas column of 235 metres), Legundi-1 (gross gas column of 139 metres and Larak-1 (gross gas column of 333 metres).
Looking ahead, Shahril said SapuraKencana will launch another five well-exploration campaigns next year that targets additional gas prospects with significant potential in the SK408 Block.
The company noted that SK408 Block is located in shallow waters and covers 4,480 square kilometre in the Central Luconia Gas Province, some 120 kilometres offshore Sarawak.
SapuraKencana disclosed that those five wells is a 10-well commitment in the SK408 PSC with SapuraKencana Energy Sarawak Incorporation as the operator with a 40 per cent working interest with partners, Petronas Carigali Sdn Bhd (30 per cent) and Sarawak Shell Bhd (30 per cent).
Dialog
Likewise, Dialog explained that its projects in the three fields in Sarawak comprises of oil field re-development and enhancement of oil recovery which is divided into two phases.
The company noted that phase one, which started in early 2014 is designed to increase oil production rate and enhance the fields production potential through a series of intervention activities and facility debottlenecking projects.
It revealed that phase one has a minimum work commitment of US$70 million.
Subsequently, Dialog said phase two is expected to significantly expand the production and overall recovery potential from the three fields.
The oil and gas company added that phase two is subject to a Field Development Plan (FDP) sanction, following completion of a series of studies designed to prove the reservoirs’responses to re-pressurisation and tertiary recovery.
Dialog forecast that the completion of the study work and the subsequent FDP approval process are planned during 2015.
Bina Puri
Apart from that, one of the construction cum property development players, Bina Puri Holdings Bhd (Bina Puri) has made further inroads to East Malaysia, where it operates on a 180 acres (72.8 hectares) granite rock quarry in Bukit Biru, Simunjan, Sarawak.
The company in its latest Annual Report said its quarry operations in Sarawak is still in its infancy stage while foresees huge potential in this new region in the very near future.
Bina Puri noted that at present, the company produces 50,000 metric tonnes of granite rocks per month and hopes to expand its production when its operation is in full swing.
Commenting on the prospects of the company’s operations in Sarawak Bina Puri executive director Matthew Tee said, “Sarawak’s existing moderate growth could potentially (be) a growth market for us,” he said.
Tee, who is also Master Builders Association Malaysia (MBAM) president during a recent seminar in Kuching said as Sarawak prospers and more with major projects in the states, the construction industry is expected to continue to play a key role in generating its economic growth.
He added, “Sarawak is projected to see its economy expand by five per cent, fueled by dynamic economic activities of the ongoing projects in SCORE and infrastructure and development projects under the 10th Malaysia Plan,” he said.
Furthermore, Bina Puri through its construction division had in April secured a contract to build the Fishery Complex in Kuching with a contract value of RM247.84 million.
Besides construction, Bina Puri group is also involved in the property development in Sarawak.
The company, which is well-known as one of the contractors for the iconic new State Legislative Assembly Building will be building 94 units of eight-storey condominium in Miri with a gross development value (GDV) of RM118 million.
Moreover, Bina Puri through its property division is also involved in a mixed development property project which the company joint venture with Kuching Hokkien Association for 62 units of shop houses with 48 units for four-storey and 14 units for five-storey building with GDV of RM123.6 million.
Going forward, Bina Puri is confident of securing more projects this year.
Press Metal
On top of that, Press Metal Bhd (Press Metal), one of the beneficiaries of SCORE has set up two aluminium smelting plants in Sarawak, one in Samalaju and the other in Mukah to meet the rising demand of aluminium as well as providing for its capacity expansion.
The company, which enjoyed solid financial performance has witnessed its turnover for the second quarter of 2014 (2Q14) ended June hit more than RM1 billion whilst its earnings for 2Q14 soared 200 per cent to RM60 million compared with RM20 million recorded in 2Q13.
Without resting on its laurels, Press Metal aims towards production of higher value aluminium segments such as billets and alloy which cater for the vehicle aluminium wheel manufacturers.
Press Metal group chief executive officer Datuk Koon Poh Keong said, “The end products to be produced in Mukah will be towards higher value namely billets and alloy which cater to the vehicle aluminium wheel manufacturers.
“These higher value products allow us to fetch higher premium above the London Merchantile Exchange (LME) price due to the value-add process.
“Going forward, the company will also be focusing on stabilising the production and improving the efficiency in operations,” he said.
Besides that, he believed the usage of aluminium body for affordable cars or trucks segment in the future will propel the demand for aluminium to another height in the wake of Ford Motor’s new development recently in using aluminium for the production of its top salable truck in America, the Ford Truck F-150.
He noted car industry analysts estimate that over the next 10 years, the usage of aluminium in new automotive vehicles will be increased from about 145kg per vehicle to 250kg, an increase of 72 per cent.
He observed the higher usage of aluminium in the automotive vehicle production coupled with the large number of mass market vehicle segments have led many aluminium sheet producers to pour in billions of dollars to expand their capacity which in turn will lead to much higher demand for aluminium for the coming years.
“Press Metal group is excited with this new development as the motor vehicles per capita in Asia region is still low
and the expected increase in consumers incomes will translate into higher demand for motor vehicles thus the increasing demand for aluminium.
“Already in this region, excluding China, the demand (for aluminium) has topped six million tons but the production capacity in Southeast Asia region is only about 650 thousand tons with Press Metal being the largest producer,” he noted.
Moreover, he pointed out that world aluminium consumption continued to grow steadily.
In fact, Koon observed aluminium demand has been increasing every year apart from the financial crisis year in 2009 as he noted the material has many advantages with designers and manufacturers exploring various applications for the metal.
Ideally, Press Metal’s operations has also contributed much progress to the development of the economic corridor of SCORE.
Given that, together with the presence of large corporations such as FGV, SapuraKencana as well as companies like Dialog,
Bina Puri and Press Metal, the investment environment has provided more economic activities besides enriching the lives and the standard of living of Sarawakians through job opportunities and more developments.
Obviously, with more investment which in turn translated into greater development, this will enable Sarawak to increase its economic growth in the future.