Ta Ann ops not severely impacted by Covid-19

SIBU: Ta Ann Holdings Bhd’s business operations have not been severely impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, says executive chairman Datuk Amar Abdul Hamed Sepawi.

He noted that the group’s core timber and oil palm businesses were still operating during the movement restriction control period.

Hamed said in a statement released after Ta Ann’s AGM yesterday that despite the adverse economic conditions, the group declared a net profit of Rm70.26mil and an interim single-tier dividend of RM0.05 per share for the financial year 2019 (FY19).

He said “barring unforeseen circumstances, we remain optimistic and expect FY20 performance to be better than FY19”.

In commending the government’s efforts in containing the spread of Covid-19, Hamed gave his assurance that the group would play its part to ensure that all relevant standard operating procedures (SOPS) are strictly adhered to.

On timber division, he said round logs demand from India, which is the group’s main export market will remain stable as “the imported round logs are the raw material to sustain their core economic activities during the pandemic, while the plywood market will stay challenging, but manageable”.

He is also optimistic that the crude palm oil (CPO) price is expected to “hold steady or possibly improve further towards the end of the year”.

The CPO prices have seen an increase from RM2,400 per tonne in June to the current level of RM2,700 per tonne.

On the oil palm market, which has seen a sharp drop in the beginning of the lockdowns, he said it has since recovered by around 23% in June 2020.

Recently, the adverse global weather especially in China and India has also negatively impacted the production and supply of vegetable oils.

Bloomberg reported recently that palm oil stockpiles in Indonesia, the world’s top grower, will probably slump to their smallest in 16 months by the end of July as production hits the lowest in more than two years after floods in major growing regions disrupted the harvest and delivery of fruit to mills.

Hamed noted that the lower supply from Indonesia coupled with higher import demand from India and China will likely further support CPO prices.

“I’m optimistic that the crude palm oil price will hold steady or improve further towards the end of the year.”

Datuk Amar Abdul Hamed Sepawi