KUALA LUMPUR (March 7): Malaysian palm oil futures on Tuesday were on track to snap five sessions of gains, as it dipped on weak demand.
At the midday break, benchmark palm oil futures for May delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange were down 0.9% at 2,867 ringgit (US$644.70) a tonne. In the previous session, they hit 2,898 ringgit, their highest in more than two weeks.
Traded volumes stood at 8,593 lots of 25 tonnes each at noon on Monday.
"Market is down as there are no buyers," said a palm oil trader in Kuala Lumpur.
Palm oil exports from Malaysia, the world's second-largest producer, fell between 12% and 14% in February, compared with a month earlier, showed cargo surveyor data.
Traders had also expected the market to drop, due to expectations of bearish price forecasts at an industry conference in Kuala Lumpur this week.
Palm prices are seen weakening between now and the second-half of this year, as production levels are expected to recover when the effects of a crop-damaging El Nino wear off.
World palm oil production is forecast to climb 11% to 65 million tonnes this year, from 58.3 million tonnes a year ago, as a near-perfect weather boosts yields, a senior industry official said at the conference on Tuesday.
In related vegetable oils, soybean oil on the Chicago Board of Trade dropped as much as 0.8%, while the May soybean oil contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange declined up to 1.6%.
The May contract for palm olein on the Dalian Commodity Exchange lost 0.7%.
Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 0448 GMT
Contract | Month | Last | Change | Low | High | Volume |
MY PALM OIL | MAR7 | 0 | +0.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
MY PALM OIL | APR7 | 2920 | -30.00 | 2910 | 2933 | 262 |
MY PALM OIL | MAY7 | 2867 | -26.00 | 2857 | 2875 | 5402 |
CHINA PALM OLEIN | MAY7 | 5866 | -44.00 | 5852 | 5940 | 319312 |
CHINA SOYOIL | MAY7 | 6582 | -94.00 | 6568 | 6688 | 322108 |
CBOT SOY OIL | MAY7 | 34 | +0.00 | 33.99 | 34.32 | 4095 |
INDIA PALM OIL | MAR7 | 535.60 | -2.90 | 534.70 | 536.4 | 148 |
INDIA SOYOIL | MAR7 | 661 | -1.90 | 660.1 | 661.6 | 860 |
NYMEX CRUDE | APR7 | 53.21 | +0.01 | 53.13 | 53.23 | 10592 |
Palm oil prices in Malaysian ringgit per tonne
CBOT soy oil in U.S. cents per pound
Dalian soy oil and RBD palm olein in Chinese yuan per tonne
India soy oil in Indian rupee per 10 kg
Crude in U.S. dollars per barrel
(US$1 = 4.4470 ringgit)
(US$1 = 66.6100 Indian rupees)
(US$1 = 6.8981 Chinese yuan)