The Philippine agriculture department said on Tuesday third quarter estimates for unmilled rice and corn harvests were cut from earlier forecasts made in July. The estimate as of September 15 for the third quarter unmilled rice output was 1.298 million tonnes from the earlier 1.312 million tonnes, a Bureau of Agricultural Statistics memorandum to Agriculture Secretary William Dar showed.

The updated forecast for corn harvest in the July to September period was 1.70 million tonnes, down from the earlier estimate of 1.77 million tonnes. The government attributed the drop in third quarter grain harvests to crop infestation and insufficient rainfall due to the El Nino weather phenomenon. The Philippines has had below normal rainfall since April 1997.

The estimate for the harvest area of unmilled rice dropped to 451,000 hectares in the third quarter from an earlier projection of 458,000 hectares. Similarly, the estimate for the corn harvest area shrank to 1.047 millionhectares from 1.07 million hectares. After the long dry spell, La Nina, which can bring torrential rains, is forecast to hit the country starting this month.

Queensland sugar crushing up

The Australian state of Queensland crushed 1.943 million tonnes of sugar cane in the week ended October 3, up 127,909 tonnes on the same week of last year, Canegrowers reported. This continues Australia's partial recovery from crush problems caused by unseasonal torrential rain and strong winds in early September.

The latest week brought the total 1998 crush so far to25.732 million tonnes, 1.79 million tonnes short of the 27.524 million tonnes crushed by this time last season, Canegrowers said. Canegrowers reported that average commercial cane sugar (CCS) content for the latest week was 12.82 per cent, bringing the average CCS so far this crush to 12.71 per cent. This compares with the progressive average CCS of 13.84 per cent up to the same time last year.

Malaysian palm oil quiet

The Malaysian palmoil market traded quietly on Wednesday morning as players awaited the release of September crop estimates from private crop forecaster Ivan Wong later in the day, traders said. A weaker Chicago soyoil futures close overnight weighed on morning prices but losses were mostly small, traders said.

The market will next focus on the official September crop report from the Palm Oil Registration and Licensing Authority (PORLA) and export data for the first half of October from cargo surveyor Societe Generale de Surveillance (SGS), both due on Thursday.

Indonesia olein prices down

The Indonesian palm olein market was depressed on Wednesday because of low demand amid abundant supply and a likely further drop in prices, traders said. "If you go to Tanjung Priok harbour in Jakarta or Tanjung Perak in Surabaya (East Java), then you will see that oil is abundant," said one trader in Jakarta. Olein was being offered in early trading at 3,400-3,450 rupiah/kg in Jakarta, lower than Tuesday's close at 3,500-3,=50rupiah/kg. "I disagree with the assumption private traders are lowering prices in order to persuade the government to lower the export taxes. That's nonsense. Buyers are staying at the sidelines because they know that prices will fall again," said the trader. Traders said they might want to export olein if local prices continued to fall with some saying that export prices stood at 3,350 rupiah/kg. Indonesia imposes export taxes of 60 per cent for CPO, 55per cent for RBD palm oil and RBD olein and 50 per cent for crude palm kernel oil.

Taiwan buys Duri crude

Taiwan's state-owned Chinese Petroleum Corp (CPC) has bought through a tender three cargoes of Indonesian Duri crude for November lifting, traders said on Wednesday. They said the cargoes, each of 270,000 barrels, were awarded at premiums of around 20 cents per barrel to the official Indonesian Crude Price (ICP) on a free-on-board basis.

The tender, to buy at least one 270,000 cargo, closed on October 12 and was valid for two days. Thewinners of the tender could not be confirmed, but a Japanese trader who buys crude on term basis from Indonesian state oil company was heard to have won two of the cargoes. Traders said that CPC had been offered six to seven cargoes in the tender. CPC has been issuing monthly spot tenders for Duri crude since July, due to the failure of its term supplier Perta Oil to meet its commitments.

Vietnam field to be onstream soon

Vietnam's Ruby oil field is expected to begin production in December, Azizan Zainul Abidin, chairman of Malaysia's state-run Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) said on Wednesday. "The initial production at the field will be 20,000barrels-per-day," Azizan told Reuters. He also said the production rate would "gradually be increased to 70,000 bpd". The Ruby field, located next to the Dai Hung field, has estimated reserves of 200 million barrels. Petronas is the majority shareholder in the field.

China oil giants go into black

China's two state oil giants, China NationalPetroleum Corp (CNPC) and China National Petrochemical Corp (Sinopec), have gone into the black on strong September profits, the China Chemical Industry News said on Wednesday. The two companies had made combined profits of 430 million yuan ($51.8 million) in the first nine months of 1998, the newspaper said. Combined profits reached 1.36 billion yuan in September alone, which offset losses of 934 million yuan in the first eight months to put them in the black for the first three quarters, it said.

The newspaper attributed the profit growth to firmer prices as a result of crude output cuts and a crackdown on the smuggling of oil products. It did not give a breakdown of the performance of the two firms. Sinopec has said it began turning profits in June and had earned 903 million yuan in September. Sinopec aimed to reduce the amount of crude processed by its refineries by a year-on-year 14.5 per cent in the third quarter of this year and 11.4 per cent in the fourth quarter, earlier reports said.

Noresult on Timah gold mine

Indonesian state-controlled mining company PT Timah Tbk said on Tuesday that exploration in its gold mine in Natal, north Sumatra, has not yet yielded any clear results. "Until now, exploration activities are not coming to a level where we can judge how much mineral deposit there would be," the company said in a statement. There were rumours recently in the market that Timah, through its subsidiary PT Timah Investasi Mineral, had found sizeable deposits at Natal.

HK gold slightly firmer

Hong Kong spot gold opened slightly firmer on Wednesday than New York's overnight finish in quiet early trading and dealers said it was seen holding in a range during the Hong Kong session. Bullion opened at $296.70/297.20 an ounce, up from New York's $296.30/80 close on Tuesday, but unchanged from Hong Kong's previous close. "There's been a little bit of short-covering this morning,but buying interest was not strong," a local trading house dealer said. "Gold sentiment is seenremaining mixed in the immediate future and prices will hold at the $295 to $298 range today." Spot silver opened at US$4.85/88 an ounce in Hong Kong. It ended quoted at $4.83/86 in New York on Tuesday. Local gold opened HK$2 higher at HK$2,727 a tael.