POIC Sabah poised to push up biomass sector

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KOTA KINABALU: State-owned POIC (Palm Oil Industrial Cluster) Sabah Sdn Bhd is poised to further push up the development of biomass industry in the state soon.

CONFISCATED: Kudat Customs Enforcement chief George Daang (left) and colleague Elias Garang, showing the cigarettes seized in the operation.

“We have managed to secure a long-term annual supply of 300,000 metric tonnes of wet EFB (empty fruit bunches) and we expect this to be taken up by investors very soon,” said the company’s chief executive officer, Datuk Dr Pang Teck Wai.

The company is developing the POIC in Lahad Datu but has been facing the challenge of unregulated supply in the EFB.

On securing the long-term EFB supply, Dr Pang said POIC Sabah had “gone out on a limb” to secure the supply to bring about some semblance of framework and price mechanism.

“We felt that there had been enough talk about the problems and decided that we needed to take the lead in order for the biomass industry to have a shot at success,” he said.

Sabah should rightfully take the lead as it is the largest palm oil producing state in the country, he added.

While declining to disclose the price for the EFB or details of its procurement mechanism, Dr Pang said POIC Sabah’s main aim in being the procurer of EFB was to inject confidence among the investor community.

“The investors are out there waiting to get their hands on EFB, but they have not been able to do so because of the unregulated environment.

“What we have done is to fulfill the role as a promoter of oil palm-related downstream processing industries not only at POIC Lahad Datu, but the rest of the state, so that our resources can be maximised for the expansion of our economy,” he said in a statement, here yesterday.

Oil palm contributes to over 40 per cent of Sabah’s GDP income and is set to grow in significance with the mechanisation, higher EFB yield and better OER (Oil Extraction Rate), he said.

“With our ready EFB supply, we would like to tell investors to come talk with us and let us partner to launch the biomass industry,” said Dr Pang, a fervent promoter of industrial clustering and a proponent for optimising biomass use. — Bernama

Meanwhile, works on the 23-megawatt combined heat and power plant owned by a Korean based company at POIC Lahad Datu is on schedule to be operational by 2012.

Owned by Eco Biomass Energy Sdn Bhd, the company aims to use oil palm mass such as EFB to generate steam and electricity.

The company purchased land at POIC Lahad in 2007 but had not been able to begin construction until recently because of earlier difficulties in securing long-term supply of feedstock.

The development of POIC Lahad Datu began in 2005 with 1,150 acres of land at the edge of Lahad Datu town.

It is adding about 500 acres of land for development to accommodate biomass-related industries and small-and-medium enterprises.

About 30 companies have so far purchased land at the POIC and the combined investments thus far is estimated to be about RM2.2 billion.

– Bernama