Sime Darby To Invest 34 Millions Euros In Oil & Fats Business in Europe
Press Release
ZWIJNDRECHT, NETHERLANDS, 2 April 2008 – Sime Darby plans to invest over 34 million Euros in its current Unimills facilities in Zwijndrecht and other business locations in Europe to further strengthen its position in the oils and fats downstream business in Europe.
Sime Darby has already identified various locations for palm oil processing facilities, including setting up a new refinery and bulking facilities which will complement the operations of its existing plant in Zwijndrecht.
At Unimills, the investment involves the installation of a new 10,000-tonne capacity tank yard, an innovation centre with a new laboratory and pilot plant facilities, and an enzymatic arrangement plant with a capacity of 100,000 tonnes per year. The innovation centre is one of three such facilities to be developed within the Sime Darby Group.
Sime Darby President & Group Chief Executive Dato’ Seri Ahmad Zubir Murshid said the decision was based on Unimills’ successful transformation from a commodity-based company into one focused on delivering high value tailor-made products.
“We are encouraged by the positive uptake and see an opportunity for Unimills to conduct further research to develop a more comprehensive range of such high-value niche products,” he said.
On Sime Darby’s production of sustainable palm oil, Dato’ Seri Ahmad Zubir said that the first batch of traceable palm oil originating from the Tawau Region in Sabah arrived at the Rotterdam Port on March 28 via its Kunak Bulking Installation. The traceability of this oil is being tracked by a third party assessor – the Schutter Group.
“The oil has been certified through a mass-balance claim at 70:30 by the independent assessor. The 30% is in support of the smallholders within the Kunak Region in accordance to the requirement on social obligation,” he said.
Unimills is expected to further process this first batch of sustainable palm oil and launch a new series of products to cater to its major European customers such as Nestle and Unilever.
A market and technology leader in margarine hardstocks in Europe, Unimills in 2006 collaborated with the Sime Darby R&D centre to develop enzymatically rearranged fats which were successfully tested by major customers in the European market. Market trends indicate a growing demand for this “greener” enzymatic rearranged fats compared to chemical interesterified fats.