EU likely to curb Indonesian palm biofuel imports

Business Recorder ^ | Sunday, November 27, 2011 | Reuters

[SunkenCiv]

European Union (EU) governments are likely to curtail their imports of Indonesian palm oil-based biofuel, which has become cheaper due to a tax cut, to protect their own domestic plants, a top analyst said on Wednesday.

"The EU has supported the build of local production capacity that is heavily under-utilised and will not be able to survive if foreign competitors to rapeseed biodiesel cannot be kept out of the market," Fredrik Erixon, director of the European Centre for International Political Economy told Reuters.

Biodiesel producers in Southeast Asia and the Americas are making headway in Europe's lucrative renewable energy market, where demand has expanded thanks to official targets designed to slow global warming and limit dependence on fossil fuels.

Erixon, who advises several European governments, said market access conditions for palm-based biodiesel should not ideally change given it is about 22 percent cheaper than European rapeseed-based biofuel priced at $1,490 per tonne.

But the European Union is certainly trying to change this, he said in an interview ahead of the Indonesian Palm Oil Conference and Price Outlook next week.

"I am pretty sure it is only a matter of time before Malaysia and Indonesia will find themselves discriminated upon access to the EU market." Three years ago, Jakarta first set an export tax for palm-based biofuel at a lower rate than crude palm oil, spurring Indonesian firms to turn palm oil into the renewable fuel and cornering the European market.

In the most recent tax structure change in August, the tax-free threshold for a tonne of biodiesel was raised to $950 a tonne from the $800 range.

The tax was capped at 7.5 percent.

[SunkenCiv]

It's the Obamacare, stupid! One-half gallon of oil in the form of pesticides per bushel of corn would cost $2 to $3 per bushel. If this were true -- and it clearly isn't -- it should be enough to illustrate to literally anyone that the price of petroleum is quite literally the ONLY thing driving corn prices. And this idiotic piece of agitprop -- from a hydrogen "energy" advocacy site -- also shows the guy in the encounter suit spraying chemical fertilizer, a sight that I've never been privileged to see, what with me *growing up on a farm*. The Bum Rap on Biofuels [2008] Campaign to vilify ethanol revealed [2008] Oil Price Pressure Driving Global Switch to Biofuels [2006]

[SunkenCiv]

Rapeseed ping.

[SunkenCiv]

OPEC Has Already Turned to the Euro
GoldMoney Alert
February 18, 2004

...The source for the euro exchange rate is the Federal Reserve, and I have calculated the euro's average exchange rate to the dollar for each year based on daily data.

US Imports of Crude oil
(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)	(5)	(6)
Year	Quantity (thousands of barrels)	Value (thousands of US dollars)	Unit price (US dollars)	Average daily US$ per € exchange rate	Unit price (euros)
2001	3,471,066	74,292,894	21.40	0.8952	23.91
2002	3,418,021	77,283,329	22.61	0.9454	23.92
2003	3,673,596	99,094,675	26.97	1.1321	23.82

We can see from column (4) in the above table that in 2001, each barrel of imported crude oil cost $21.40 on average for that year. But by 2003 the average price of a barrel of crude oil had risen 26.0% to $26.97 per barrel. However, the important point is shown in column (6). Note that the price of crude oil in terms of euros is essentially unchanged throughout this 3-year period.

As the dollar has fallen, the dollar price of crude oil has risen. But the euro price of crude oil remains essentially unchanged throughout this 3-year period. It does not seem logical that this result is pure coincidence. It is more likely the result of purposeful design, namely, that OPEC is mindful of the dollar's decline and increases the dollar price of its crude oil by an amount that offsets the loss in purchasing power OPEC's members would otherwise incur. In short, OPEC is protecting its purchasing power as the dollar declines.

[SunkenCiv]

One more, now it’s good night all.

[GeronL]

meanwhile they sue the US because we subsidize ours as they artificially inflate their prices?

[SunkenCiv]

• EU likely to curb Indonesian palm biofuel imports
• World needs needs Tequila power: report (Better Bio-fuel)
• Redfield Energy ethanol plant to convert to Gevo isobutanol process
• Incentives sought for ethanol made from natural gas
• Bachmann's Tricky Ethanol Politics - She's for it, but she's also a Tea Partier.
• Perry wants a "level playing field" & an end to ethanol mandate (audio)
• Gingrich praises ethanol's benefits (2009)

[SunkenCiv]

• EU opens investigation into U.S. bioethanol subsidies
• World needs needs Tequila power: report (Better Bio-fuel)
• Redfield Energy ethanol plant to convert to Gevo isobutanol process
• Incentives sought for ethanol made from natural gas
• Bachmann's Tricky Ethanol Politics - She's for it, but she's also a Tea Partier.
• Perry wants a "level playing field" & an end to ethanol mandate (audio)
• Gingrich praises ethanol's benefits (2009)

[BlackVeil]

I would have thought that in south east asia they could produce bio-deisel from palm oil fairly cheaply - competetive because the price of oil is now so high. But maybe not.

[TheOldLady]

EU = Idiots

Don't know history, doomed to repeat it, and dragging the world down with them.