Sterling Biofuels re-starts Malaysia biodiesel plant

Australia’s Sterling Biofuels International has re-started its Lahad Datu biodiesel plant in eastern Malaysia, the company said in a notice published on its web site. The re-start of the 100,000 million ton-per-year (2,000 barrels per day) biodiesel plant is more evidence that the region’s biodiesel producers are starting to re-emerge from a long year of pain and negative margins that forced most to close down while the price of palm oil—their principal feedstock—outpaced the value of biodiesel. Since March, oil prices had fallen by 65% to around US$450 per metric tons. Sterling Managing Director C.S.R. Paragash said biodiesel prices would need to strengthen further, or palm oil prices to fall more deeply, to support continuous production. (November 24, 2008)