22/04/2025

BIZ & FINANCE TUESDAY | APR 22, 2025

/thesuntelegram FOLLOW / Malaysian Paper

ON TELEGRAM m RAM

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Indonesia March trade surplus hits four-month high

Thai Q1 rice exports fall 30% annually BANGKOK: Thailand’s rice exports fell 30% annually in the first quarter of this year to 2.1 million metric tonnes, an industry association said yesterday. The decline was due to countries delaying buying decisions and India resuming rice exports, Thai Rice Exporters Association honorary president Chookiat Ophaswongse told reporters. Full-year exports could fall below the forecast of 7.5 million tonnes, he said, but exporters were seeing more US orders after a 90-day pause on the imposition of steep new tariffs. Exports in the second quarter would be similar to the first three months of the year, he said. The tariff of 36% imposed on Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy is among the higher rates imposed by US President Donald Trump’s administration. A delegation led by Finance Minister Pichai Chunhavajira will meet US officials in Washington this week to seek lower tariffs. Thailand is the world’s second-largest rice exporter, but could lose that title if tariffs were higher than 10%, Chookiat said. Last year, Thailand shipped 9.94 million tonnes of rice, with the US being its third-largest market by volume. – Reuters LG Energy Solution pulls out of Indonesian EV battery investment JAKARTA: South Korea’s LG Energy Solution (LGES) has formally withdrawn from a 142 trillion rupiah (RM37 billion) project in electric vehicle (EV) battery making in Indonesia, the company said yesterday. LGES and the Indonesian government signed a deal on the so-called Indonesia Grand Package project in late 2020, which include investments across the EV battery supply chain. “Taking into account various factors, including market conditions, we have agreed to formally withdraw from the Indonesia GP (Grand Package) project,” LGES said in a statement. “However, we will continue to explore various avenues of collaboration with the Indonesian government, centring on the Indonesia battery joint venture, HLI Green Power,” it added. HLI Green Power is a joint venture led by LGES and Hyundai Motor Group. The company last year inaugurated Indonesia’s first battery cell production plant for EVs with annual capacity of 10 Gigawatt hours of battery cells. The Investment Ministry as well as state companies Aneka Tambang and Indonesia Battery Corporation, which had planned to partner with LGES for the project, did not respond to requests for comment. – Reuters

JAKARTA: reported yesterday a US$4.33 billion (RM19 billion) trade surplus in March, more than expected and the widest in four months as shipments beat estimates on strong palm oil and nickel exports as well as a rush to beat the start date for US tariffs. A Reuters poll of analysts had expected a surplus of US$2.64 billion in March. The March surplus was the largest since November 2024, according to LSEG data. Exports from the resource-rich country have rebounded from lows reached after the end of a commodity boom in 2022, but shipments could soon be affected by a dimming global growth outlook due to the trade war sparked by US tariffs. Among the countries that US President Donald Trump targeted for tariffs above 10%, Indonesia was hit with a 32% levy, which has been paused for 90 days. Several Indonesian ministers have been in Washington since last week to try to negotiate a deal to avoid the tariffs, presenting a proposal that includes buying more American products to reduce the trade gap with the US. Exports rose 3.16% on an annual basis in March to US$23.25 billion, official data showed yesterday, compared with a 3.4% fall expected by economists polled by Reuters. o Shipments beat estimates on strong palm oil and nickel exports Indonesia

A container is unloaded from a truck at Tanjung Priok Port in Jakarta. – REUTERSPIC

Shipments of palm oil surged nearly 41% last month from the same month in 2024 to US$2.19 billion, while nickel metals exports rose 12% to US$2.38 billion. They helped offset a drop in coal exports. Total imports were worth US$18.92 billion, the statistics bureau said, up 5.34% on a yearly basis, compared with the poll’s prediction of a 6.6% rise. Hosianna Situmorang, an

economist with Bank Danamon, called March’s surplus solid, bolstered by rising US-bound exports. “Exporters accelerated shipments ahead of Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, causing heavy port congestion at Tanjung Priok, while freight bookings at Chinese ports plunged by 640–800K containers, signaling early spillover from trade tensions,” she said, referring to Jakarta’s main port. Exports of electronics, footwear and knitted apparel to the US grew

more than 15% each on a yearly basis in the first quarter, the data showed. The three were Indonesia’s biggest export products to the US. The trade surplus with the US also was the biggest contributor to Indonesia’s overall surplus in January-March 2025, standing at US$4.32 billion, up from US$3.61 billion in the same period in 2024. Indonesia’s overall trade surplus in the first quarter reached US$10.92 billion. – Reuters

Vietnam to finalise restructuring plan for lender SCB HANOI: Vietnam’s central bank is finalising a report, based on a plan from an unspecified investor, to restructure ailing Saigon Joint Stock Commercial Bank, the lender at the centre of the country’s biggest financial fraud on record, local media reported. The State Bank of Vietnam has drafted a report about the rescue plan prepared by the unspecified investor, the Finance Ministry’s Dau Tu newspaper reported during the weekend. The central bank, SCB and Sun Group did not immediately reply to requests for comment. an additional life sentence reduced to 30 years on appeal, according to state media. SCB has been using cash injections from the central bank to cover cash withdrawals since October 2022, Reuters has reported.

The State Bank of Vietnam placed SCB under its supervision to stem a run on the bank sparked by the October 2022 arrest of real estate tycoon Truong My Lan, who was later sentenced to death over her role in siphoning off from SCB the equivalent of billions of dollars in loans to shell companies she controlled. In a separate trial over money laundering and the illegal issuance of corporate bonds, Lan yesterday had

The draft is subject to changes after opinions from relevant state bodies, the paper said, giving no details on the plan or a timeframe for its submission. Reuters has reported that Sun Group had been appointed by the central bank to prepare the restructuring plan for SCB.

The central bank and government have repeatedly sought help for SCB from the private sector, specifically calling on foreign investors, according to state media, despite restrictions such as a 30% cap on combined foreign ownership of Vietnamese banks.– Reuters

Last month, Reuters reported that Vietnam developer Sun Group had proposed a rescue plan for SCB, which entailed the full reimbursement within 15 years of nearly US$26 billion (RM114 billion) the central bank has pumped into SCB since October 2022 after a run on its deposits.

Keppel gets nearly S$2 billion in capital commitments for its funds SINGAPORE: Keppel, a Singapore-based manager and operator of assets such as data centres, said yesterday that it has secured close to S$2 billion (RM6.7 billion) of capital commitments from global institutional investors for its flagship funds. Keppel said in a statement that the commitments were for its Keppel Data Centre Fund III, the Keppel Education Asset Fund II and its sustainable urban renewal strategy. Christina Tan, Keppel’s CEO of fund management and also its chief investment officer, said the securing of capital reflected the resilient demand for alternative real assets anchored to macrotrends including climate change and energy transition, urbanisation and artificial intelligence. Keppel said the investors included pension and insurance

funds, as well as a sovereign wealth fund. It did not name the investors. Tan said the commitments bring Keppel closer to achieving its funds under management target of S$100 billion by 2026 and S$200 billion by 2030. – Reuters