Sawit POIC refutes MP’s ‘no activity at all’ claim
SANDAKAN: Sawit Palm Oil Industrial Cluster (Sawit POIC) here has refuted Sandakan MP Stephen Wong’s claim in a local daily that there was no activity at all on its site.
“Presently, as seen in the photos, a private company, Green Edible Oils Sdn Bhd, owned by Kretam Holdings Bhd is loading into a ship 16,000 MT of palm oil.
“This oil is being discharged from Sawit POIC’s bulking tanks.
“Meanwhile, a sizable port infrastructure is under construction, palm products in the form of CPO, Olein, Stearin and palm fatty acid are already being exported through Sawit POIC’s bulking and jetty facilities,” Sawit POIC said in a statement yesterday.
“To date, there are numerous private sector demands for palm oil related bulking facilities for storage and export to the extent that Sawit POIC’s present bulking tanks are not able to cope with market demand,” it said.
“Presently, Sawit POIC is in discussion with several companies expressing interest to set up operations here.
“The bigger companies are IOI Bhd, Hap Seng Bhd and Kretam Holdings Bhd,” the statement said.
“Moving forward, Sawit POIC which is wholly owned by Sawit Kinabalu Sdn Bhd is confident of investors’ interest because the wholly state government-owned Sawit Kinabalu Sdn Bhd, being a large oil palm plantation operator, offers many plausible business collaboration options in the area of oil and palm biomass supply.
“It is a well established industry, it’s a fact that one of the most challenging aspects of downstream investment in this sector is the availability of feedstock.
“In this respect, Sawit POIC through Sawit Kinabalu Sdn Bhd which owns and operates with 80,000 hectares of planted area offers tremendous resources to downstream investors.
“As such, we are optimistic now that most of the major infrastructure are completed, we should see significant investment interest and uptake in the palm oil and palm biomass downstream sector,” it said.