KUALA LUMPUR, March 10 (Reuters) – Malaysian palm oil futures fell to a2-week low on Tuesday, stretching its losing streak into a fifth day asdisappointing exports in early March, alongside losses in crude and soymarkets, piled pressure onto the benchmark contract.
Cargo surveyor Intertek Testing Services showed that Malaysian palm oilshipments for March 1-10 fell 12.3 percent to 262,168 tonnes compared with thesimilar period a month ago, as Europe and China slashed imports of the tropicaloil.
“During the Palm Oil Conference everyone was talking about goodexports in March, but this is disappointing,” said a trader with a foreigncommodities firm in Kuala Lumpur.
“The pressure is definitely coming from exports…26,000 tonnes aday is very, very low.”
Another cargo surveyor Societe Generale de Surveillance showed thatexports for the same period slid 19.3 percent. The benchmark May contract onthe Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange hit its lowest since Feb. 24 at 2,221ringgit in the afternoon session, before settling 1.5 percent lower at 2,238ringgit ($605) a tonne by Tuesday’s close – marking a fifth day of losses.
Total traded volume stood at 60,412 lots of 25 tonnes, much higher thanthe usual 35,000 lots. Malaysian Palm Oil Board data, released after the middaybreak, showed that Malaysian palm oil stocks hit a seven-month low of 1.74million tonnes at the end of February. But the fall was smaller than estimatesfor inventories to ease to 1.67 million tonnes. Exports for the month plungedto their weakest in nearly eight years, the MPOB said.
“Overall, the trend is weak,” said a second Kuala Lumpur-basedtrader. “The stocks are unlikely to hit 1.5 million tonnes…plus demandtook a hit in February, and now March,” the trader added. Palm gainedlittle respite from the slide in the ringgit against the dollar, which scorednear 12-year highs on Tuesday and mounted pressure on most emerging Asiancurrencies. A weaker ringgit that touched 3.7025, its lowest since March 2009,typically makes the ringgit-priced feedstock cheaper for overseas buyers. But astrong dollar also hurt oil prices, which in turn weighed on palm.
Brent crude futures dipped below $58 a barrel on Tuesday as the dollarscaled multi-year highs and the oil market remained hobbled by oversupply andweak demand.
In vegetable oil markets, the most active May soybean oil contract onthe Dalian Commodity Exchange fell 0.8 percent in late Asian trade. The U.S.soyoil contract for May dropped 0.7 percent.
Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 1012 GMT
Contract Month Last Change Low High Volume
MY PALM OIL MAR5 2260 -20.00 2230 2300 116
MY PALM OIL APR5 2230 -42.00 2216 2271 2589
MY PALM OIL MAY5 2238 -33.00 2221 2276 28834
CHINA PALM OLEIN SEP5 4742 -64.00 4732 4808 441202
CHINA SOYOIL SEP5 5464 -42.00 5456 5524 423398
CBOT SOY OIL MAY5 30.79 -7.40 30.70 31.20 11984
INDIA PALM OIL MAR5 445.30 -7.40 443.60 452.10 1329
INDIA SOYOIL APR5 574.65 -6.40 573.50 580.80 22885
NYMEX CRUDE APR5 49.56 -0.44 49.46 50.36 24492
Palm oil prices in Malaysian ringgit per tonne ($1= 3.7000 Malaysian ringgit)
CBOT soy oil in U.S. cents per pound ($1= 6.2620 Chinese yuan)
Dalian soy oil and RBD palm olein in Chinese yuan per tonne ($1 = 62.73 Indian rupee)
India soy oil in Indian rupee per 10 kg
Crude in U.S. dollars per barrel
Source : Reuters
]]>