UniFiber System   

UniFiber

Let see what happen in aug  then comment.

 

This stock in my opinion, cannot make it. There are so many news out there, still it cannot perform. No one have faith in it. The volume is thin most of the time.

 

Ethanol from wood chips
By BRANDON BENNETT
Black Hills Pioneer Wednesday, February 14, 2007

UPTON -- They're betting on the chips. Wood chips, that is.

Scientists from the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology have designed a plant aimed at producing ethanol from wood chips.

According to George Douglas of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo., the planned facility in Upton would be the first of its kind in the nation. A second plant is planned in Georgia, he said.

The plant, near completion in the Black Hills, could bring closer to fruition a goal set for the country by President Bush: to make more fuel from renewable sources.

"This is certainly the wave of the future," said Dr. David Dixon of SDSM&T's Chemical and Bio-Engineering Department.

Ethanol is widely produced today from corn and other food crops and used as an additive to gas and diesel fuel. Making fuel from wood chips and other nonfood crops is more difficult but has the potential to significantly alter our dependence oil.

"We must continue investing in new methods of producing ethanol," Bush said in his State of the Union address last month, including, "using everything from wood chips to grasses to agricultural waste."

Dixon teamed with Western Biomass Energy, a Rapid City, S.D.-based company, to help develop a plan to convert Black Hills forest waste into ethanol. The company is now building a plant in Upton on just under 5 acres and hopes to open its doors in March.

The pilot plant is designed to produce 1 million gallons of fuel a year and could lead to a plant that would eventually produce as much as 20 million gallons of the fuel each year, using wood chips and wood residue as base material, according to President Randy Kramer.

According to its Web site, Western Biomass works closely with KL Process Design Group, a company that operates three other ethanol plants in Greybull; Sutherland, Neb.; and Buffalo, N.Y. Those other plants use corn as the primary source for ethanol.

The ethanol industry is growing by leaps and bounds, with 120 plants nationwide and 72 under construction. South Dakota boasts 12 plants with three more under construction. While the majority of ethanol plants use corn and other grains to make the fuel, a growing number worldwide are turning to wood, grasses and other plants for their needs.

Countries such China, Canada and Spain have joined the United States in the pursuit of this new form of energy.

Turning wood chips into ethanol is a little harder than with corn, so the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology has been developing new ways to do that, under the direction of Dixon.

"We just founded a biomass research center, and partnered with (South Dakota State University). Ethanol is going to be the primary focus of our efforts," Dixon said.

The Center for Bioprocessing Research and Development was created after Gov. Mike Rounds said the state needed to be a leader in research and development of biofuels. The center was funded for five years at $500,000 per year. A group of 10 instructors makes up the team of researchers, and they have experience in agricultural engineering, chemical and biological engineering, as well as biology and microbiology. The center joins four other research centers around South Dakota.

"With our dependence on oil, we found that this is a resource that is harder to get," Dixon said. "And so we're looking at renewable resources like ethanol, or biodiesel, made from feedstocks that can be added to fuels like gas or diesel."

While starch-based ethanol uses sugars as a starting point, cellulosic ethanol uses cellulose as a base. Cellulose is harder to break down than starch or sugar, so the School of Mines conducted research into making glucose out of cellulose, and then using microorganisms to ferment the mixture. Using cellulosic materials means being able to use the whole plant, making it potentially cheaper to procure.

"Cellulose is the primary part of the plant walls, lignin is the secondary part. Hemicellulose is the weaker part of the plant and can be easily dissolved," Dixon said. "Once that is done, it can be turned into glucose, a natural plastic. It's this that is turned into ethanol."

He said while this process is more expensive, the research being done may make it more efficient. He added the benefits outweigh the cost of producing this type of ethanol.

This different process in distilling ethanol will help lessen the need to use corn to make ethanol, which some contend is affecting the price of a food source for many people. Dixon -- and Western Biomass -- hope short grasses, the remnants of corn stalks and wood chips will replace grains in the process.

In addition, the use of wood residue for ethanol production has Wyoming and federal foresters happy with the prospect of a clean forest, without the use of fire to alleviate hazards.

That's because workers for Western Biomass would follow logging crews, clean up slash and residue piles on state and private land and use the wood for the ethanol process. And there's promising news for the future.

A feedstock study revealed that within a 25-mile radius of Upton, there is enough wood to support an ethanol facility for several years.

 

500,000 tonne mill for energy wood chips in the Republic of Congo

MagIndustries, a Canadian company involved in industrial and energy projects in Central-Africa (most notably the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo), announced that its wholly owned forestry division, MagForestry, has begun the construction of a 500,000 tonne per year wood chipping plant on its harbour-side lands located in the Atlantic port city of Pointe-Noire in the Republic of Congo. The ultimate aim of MagForestry's operations is to satisfy growing global demand for biomass fuels. Especially in Europe, woody biomass is increasingly used in power plants to generate carbon-neutral electricity and heat (in large plants co-fired with coal or 100% biomass, and in smaller combined heat-and-power plants - earlier post). Europe is gradually building infrastructures to import such fuels (bioports and bioterminals, with the port of Antwerp aiming to become a leading hub).

MagForestry recently acquired a 68,000 hectare eucalyptus forestry plantation which lies within a 40 kilometer radius of Pointe-Noire, making it one of the worlds most accessible sources of renewable biomass. The energy and fibre plantation is based on extremely fast growing clones of eucalyptus. During a seven year cycle from planting to harvesting the trees reach heights of 25 meters (80 feet) and yield around 23.5 tonnes of wood per hectare each year once the permanent harvesting cycle starts. With an expected output of 1.6 million tonnes per annum, the plantation yields the energy equivalent of some 3.5 million barrels of oil per year (IEA Bioenergy online biomass calculator).

In a first phase, annual production capacity at the mill will be 500,000 tonnes of eucalyptus wood chips based on 2 shifts per day, with a planned increase towards full capacity to 1 million tones per year following the increased mechanization of forest harvesting. Additional future steps for MagForestry include producing wood-fuel pellets which are in increasing demand in Europe. Over the longer term, the 68,000ha energy plantation will reach an annual production rate of 1.6 million tonnes per year [entry ends here]. 

 

Warren Buffett's best 6 principleson investment.

Principle 1: Keep it simple

People come up with all sorts of complicated systems designed to make stock picking easy. But Buffett?s approach is simple: find well-run businesses, then invest in them.

It?s a simple idea, but it takes hard work and discipline to put into practice. You need to do your homework before you invest.

Start by reading everything you can about a company and its competitors, beginning with its annual report ? and the company profile in the News and Research section of the CommSec web site.


Principle 2: Be an investor, not a trader

Although he?s grown rich investing in shares, Warren Buffett doesn?t try to make money on the share market. For him, shares are just a tool for investing in businesses. It?s the quality of those businesses that counts, not the ups and downs of their share prices.

Then, after buying into an outstanding business, he holds on to it. The moral is to think about the business and its prospects and let the share price take care of itself.


Principle 3: Find outstanding businesses

This is the key to investing like Mr Buffett: finding outstanding businesses that you can rely on to keep increasing their earnings, year in and year out.

Mr Buffett has listed some of the questions you need to ask yourself about a business before committing your hard-earned money to it:

* Has it consistently performed well?
* Do I understand its business?
* Are its profit margins high?
* Are they increasing?
* Does it offer outstanding return on equity?
* Does it have an unbeatable competitive advantage?
* Is it free from excess debt?
* Does it have high-quality, ethical management?
* And, most importantly: can I buy it at a discount to its real value?


Principle 4: Make your own decisions

Buffett has good news for the DIY investor. He believes that you don?t have to be an economics graduate to make money from shares. What you need, according to Buffett, is an inquiring mind and a willingness to do your homework, plus the discipline to resist market fads.

By concentrating on business value, rather than share price, you can avoid being caught up in the waves of euphoria and despair that sometimes sweep the sharemarket. Instead of despairing at a downturn, you can celebrate, as new buying opportunities become available.


Principle 5: Leave a margin of safety

After finding an outstanding business, Buffett tries to put a value on it. But he is refreshingly candid about the fact that valuations can be both subjective and uncertain. That?s where his margin of safety comes in.

Mr. Buffett looks for companies that are trading well below his estimate of their intrinsic value. Then, if his estimate proves optimistic, or if some unforeseen event reduces the company?s value, there is still plenty of room for profit.


Principle 6: Focus on your strengths

Mr Buffett?s argues that you should throw out conventional wisdom about reducing risk through diversification ? provided that you have the skills you need to pick a few outstanding businesses, and the temperament to stick with them.

You can increase your odds of doing that by concentrating on a few sectors, then finding out everything you can about them. As Mr Buffett says: ?You don't have to be right about every company. You just have to make a few good decisions in a lifetime.?

 

Shell calls food crop biofuels 'morally inappropriate'

Royal Dutch Shell, the world's top marketer of biofuels, considers using food crops to make biofuels "morally inappropriate" as long as there are people in the world who are starving, an executive said Thursday.

Eric Holthusen, a fuels technology manager for the Asia-Pacific region, said the company's research unit, Shell Global Solutions, has developed alternative fuels from renewable resources that use wood chips and plant waste rather than food crops that are typically used to make the fuels.

Holthusen said his company's participation in marketing biofuels extracted from food was driven by economics or legislation.

"If we have the choice today, then we will not use this route," Malaysia-based Holthusen said at a seminar in Singapore.

"We think morally it is inappropriate because what we are doing here is using food and turning it into fuel. If you look at Africa, there are still countries that have a lack of food, people are starving, and because we are more wealthy, we use food and turn it into fuel. This is not what we would like to see. But sometimes economics force you to do it."

The world's top commercially produced biofuels are ethanol and biodiesel.

Ethanol, mostly used in the United States and Brazil, is produced from sugar cane and beets and can also be derived from grains such as corn and wheat. Biodiesel, used in Europe, is extracted from the continent's predominant oil crop, rapeseed, and can also be produced from palm and coconut.

Holthusen said Shell has been working on biofuels that can be extracted from plant waste and wood chips, but he did not say when the alternative biofuel might be commercially available.

"We are not resting. We are doing what everybody needs to do. We have worked overtime on an alternative to get away from food, and this is what we call the second generation of biofuels," he said.

He said Shell, in partnership with Canadian biotech firm Iogen, has developed "cellulose ethanol," which is made from the wood chips and nonfood portion of renewable feedstocks such as cereal straws and corn stover, and can be blended with gasoline. Ethanol is typically extracted from sugarcane or grain.

 

A new break through for bio fuel.
Future bio fuel play will be biomass source from wood chips.


Shell partners with CHOREN in the world?s first commercial SunFuel development

Shell Deutschland Oil GmbH has acquired a minority equity stake in CHOREN Industries GmbH, Freiberg/Saxony. Shell?s commitment sets the stage for construction of the world?s first commercial facility to convert biomass into high-quality synthetic bio-fuel, already marketed by CHOREN as SunFuel. A 15,000 t*censored* plant is planned for the production of SunFuel. SunFuel is supported by carmakers such as Volkswagen and DaimlerChrysler because it can be used without modification in any diesel engine without compromising performance and with a substantial reduction in harmful emissions. Shell?s stake in CHOREN is still subject to approval by the German cartel authorities.

CHOREN Industries has developed its patented Carbo-V® Biomass-gasification process to become a leader in the field of converting biomass ? such as woodchips ? into ultra clean tar-free synthetic gas. This ?syngas? can then be converted into synthetic bio-fuels using the same Shell Middle Distillate Synthesis (SMDS) technology that Shell has developed for Gas to Liquids production (conversion of natural gas into synthetic oil products). Shell is a leader in Gas to Liquids (GTL) technology with unparalleled operating experience in the first commercial GTL plant of its type at Bintulu Malaysia. The synthetic GTL Fuel produced is an important component of Shell?s market leading V-Power Diesel that is exclusively sold at Shell Retail stations in several markets including Germany.

?We believe that the leadership combination of both companies? experience and complementary technologies will enable the construction and operation of the first medium-sized ?Biomass to Liquids? (BTL) plant. This plant will be located at CHOREN?s premises in Freiberg and will pave the way towards more attractive large-scale plants" explained Rob Routs (Executive Director Downstream) from Shell.

The synthetic fuels made from biomass have identical composition to synthetic products derived from natural gas ? yet they have the advantage of being sustainable and environmentally friendly because they are based on renewable feedstocks. BTL Fuel is as clear as water and virtually free of sulphur and aromatic substances. BTL Fuel?s ignition qualities (as measured by a very high cetane number) are excellent, thereby reducing noise and resulting in cleaner combustion than with conventional diesel. Greenhouse gas emissions from BTL Fuel are less than 10 per cent of those from fossil fuels. Moreover, BTL Fuel can either be used as a pure product or in a blend with conventional diesel fuel. Initially it will only be available in limited volumes until the technology progresses and larger plants can be built.

Tom Blades, CEO, CHOREN Industries said: ?We are particularly pleased to have won over a partner with Shell?s FT (Fischer Tropsch) knowledge and clean fuel experience. It affirms our vision for the realization of large-scale production of biomass derived synthetic transport fuels that meet the needs of today?s and tomorrow?s mobile society but without further burdening the environment.?

According to Rob Routs: ?In the next two to three decades, liquid fuels will continue to dominate the market. Climate protection measures will mean that the share accounted for by biofuels is set to increase. We want to proactively participate in this shift as part of our commitment to the concept of sustainable mobility and maintain our leadership in formulating advanced fuels.?



Background information

In 2003 CHOREN became the first company to demonstrably produce BTL Fuel outside of the laboratory environment. The unique Carbo-V® gasification technology is able to convert a broad spectrum of biomass feedstocks such as wood chips, straw or energy plants into a tar-free synthetic gas that may be converted into clean transport fuel using Fischer-Tropsch synthesis or alternatively for power generation.

Traditional bio-fuels such as RME (rapeseed oil methyl ester) and ethanol are first generation bio-fuels. They are made using the same parts of plants (rapeseed, grain or sugar cane crops) that are also used in food production. Competition between fuel and food for these crops has the potential to impact upon both availability and price. In contrast, biomass based BTL Fuel or ethanol produced from ligno-cellulose are second generation bio-fuels. These fuels are made by converting those parts of plants not used in food production. Hence farmers are able to satisfy the needs of both the food and fuels industry from the same land, thus significantly increasing yields per hectare whilst securing an additional source of revenue.

BTL Fuel provides Governments the opportunity to increase domestic energy security, create jobs in agriculture, develop renewable energy, and reduce (well-to-wheel) carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

 

888max, tks for the info. Let's hope for the best...

 

I have cashed out. Under such market conditions it is better to cash out on all of the counters that I have held on, and will adopt a wait and see attitude until I feel it is the right time to go in at the appropriate price.

I tend to agree with 888max that this counter is worth betting on seeing how Dow crashes last night, and in tandem, the SES. But this stock is still well supported at market close.

Weekend jitters, may decide to come back into the game Monday depends on today's Dow's performance. I would expect it to trade within a narrow band today. If it plunges again like last night then better be on the side lines. Cash would be the name of the game then, waiting for bargains.

Have a good weekend.

 

 

Enough talking, let the market force decide the stock price in the coming weeks.

Just to add: Today we see some invisible hands at work supporting the stock price @0.27cts with some 11 millions shares traded , that's despite last night DOW fallen some 400 pts.

 

 

Geminigoko, I'm expecting good earnings for this coming 11 aug 2007.(that's, if the date doesn't change)This is a multi bagger stock wait to be discovered. Once their US$ 863millions pulps mill is build and operartional in 2009. This will be another Golden Agri in the making. If you've the money, buy low now and keep for 2 yrs for it to hit $1.00.

11 aug 2007 earnings:

2006 construction contracts + 1Q 2007 Wood chips contribution + Full year 2006 OMA with PT KK + return of US$45 millions loans of UFS from PT KK recently

 

 

 

 

 

Hi 888max, you've been saying to wait and see till 11 aug for outcome. Are you refering to their financial report (P/L) or their confirmation proposal of funds/bonds with the 'Hedge funds' firm? I didn't finish all your write up, too many to follow. Would appreciate your reply. I bought the share too and now seeing south arrow. Hope is due to DJIA side for the fare now.  

 

Don't buy..shd sell when it was 33cts..since last may 2006 trading range from 24 to 33cts...buy Achieva better ..takeover soon..will cross 30cts..Besides UnitedFibre is a non marginable stock..always on Brokers curb limit list..sick stock like GMG Global,Magnus,Hengxin,SunEsat,Unionmet,SunVic,yuanbang,Kangda,Biosensor,etc

 

0.26 now.. good to BUY

 

Just to clarify your doubt.

PT KK plant is located at the East Kalimantan  while Unifiber  new pulps mill is at the south Kalimantan. And Unifiber is now majority ang mo foreign investors owners and not s'pore.

 

 

Let see !

 

Facts are already in the public domain. If anyone is interested Im sure they will do their research. Punters excluded. Im sharing with all what the big picture tells u about their govt and their way of dealing with others. Read today's ST pg 6 and u will get a feel of what the people in Uni are going thru and u know the up mountain task they are facing. Im not so sure the S'pore plant can be built next to KK. Of course in every case time will tell. 

 

 You don't give facts to proof your case but only know how to criticize freely.

Only time will tell who will be right/wrong.

Stop been a Satan !

 

 

Every stock has an appealing risk/reward profile. If you r a day trader then this counter sucks. If you r short term (1 - 3mth) this counter also sucks. If you r medium term (3 - 6mth) you r a loser ie up n down still no $. If you r long term investor (more than 6mth) u r DEAD!

 

 

Just like one fellow bro said:

"Based on current price, this stock has an appealing risk/reward profile. "