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CHICAGO, July 27 (Reuters) - Chicago Board of Trade soybean futuresseesawed throughout Tuesday's session before ending mostly lower asdiffering views about weather outlooks and a volatile cash basis kepttraders on edge, floor brokers said.CBOT soy futures closed 3-1/2 cents per bushel lower to 1/2 centhigher. Old-crop August ended 3-1/2 lower at $6.65-1/2 -- after seeing a26-cent price swing and climbing 17 cents shortly after the open. Earlystrength came from renewed concerns about a 27-year low in U.S. soy stocksand a step-up in Midwest processor bids. The market was also technicallyoversold and due for correction.But it didn't take long for August to lose steam once new-crop soybeansturned lower. New-crop contracts were higher early on 11- to 15-dayoutlooks for hotter, drier weather moving into the Midwest as soybeansbegin setting pods."Even though the longer-range maps had much above normal temperaturescoming into the Corn Belt there's certainly a lot of skepticism that theheat will actually be a factor. That brought a lot of choppy trade," saidDan Cekander, an analyst with Fimat Futures.New-crop November ended unchanged at $5.97 but was also volatile,rallying 10 cents then falling 11 cents. Expectations of a record-largeU.S. soy crop, with some talking about a 3.0 billion bushels crop remainsbearish. Crop conditions continue to improve. USDA late Monday rated 69percent of the U.S. soy crop as good to excellent, up from 68 percent lastweek.The roller coaster ride continued about midday when August recoveredamid strong commercial bull spreading. ADM Investor Services spreadroughly 800 Aug/Nov and 300 Aug/Sept. CIF offers for July at the U.S. Gulfalso spiked higher, up 40 cents by midday. The jump in CIF values sparkedtalk of Chinese interest in U.S. soybeans, but there was no confirmationof a sale.The cash basis was volatile as well. There were reports that the cashbasis appreciated at some Midwest locations, while others remained steadyto softer, floor traders said.Soymeal futures ended 90 cents per ton higher to $1.50 lower, with thefront months up on a technical recovery. August closed 90 cents higher at$212.70. The market was due for a bounce as the nine-day RSI for Augustdipped to 9 as of Monday's close. Funds bought about 1,100 meal futures.The soymeal market has followed the recent weakness in soybeans andremains under pressure from a soft U.S. cash meal market, traders said.CBOT soyoil futures ended 0.01 to 0.25 cent per lb lower, with August

27/07/04 Ukraine - In May 2004 imports of palm oil went further down alongwith imports of coconut oil. In May 2004 Ukrainian companies purchasedcumulatively 8 ths.t of palm, coconut and palm kernel oil which is one anda half times less than during April. In late May Odessa seaport receivedaround 8 ths.t of palm oil however it will be sold no sooner than June.Moreover, Illichivsk port also received a vessel loaded with 7 ths.t ofpalm oil. Part of the above volumes may be sold to Russian companieshowever the majority of the commodity will be delivered to the Ukrainianmarket.

LAHORE, July 27 Asia Pulse - Pakistan's edible oil imports have crossedthe level of Rs31 billion (US$532million) during the fiscal year 2003-04in the wake of inflated prices at the international level. However, thisfigure is expected to come down as edible oil prices have fallen in theglobal market.

7/27/04 Oilmandi - The north-western region, which is facing adrought-like situation, will remain largely dry until the middle of thisweek with conditions still not favourable for monsoon, a weather officialsaid on Monday.

PALEMBANG, July 26 Asia Pulse - President Megawati Soekarnoputri said hereSaturday crude palm oil (CPO) should become Indonesia's premier commodityin the future.

7/26/2004 Agra Europe - The EU-25 is expected to produce 17.74 milliontonnes of oilseeds in 2004, an increase of 17.7% over the 15.07mtharvested in last year, according to COCERAL. The old EU-15 is seenaccounting for 1.63mt of the increase, while the New Member States (NMS)are forecast to account for 1.04mt.

KUCHING, July 26 (Bernama) -- The Plantation Industries and CommoditiesMinistry is looking into the possibility of setting up a traininginstitute to develop a good pool of local expertise and to reducedependency on foreign labour in the palm oil industry.

KUALA LUMPUR, 26 Julai (Bernama) -- Lembaga Minyak Sawit Malaysia (MPOB),agensi pembangunan dan penggalakan minyak sawit utama kerajaan,memperkenalkan 43 item berasaskan minyak sawit tahun ini untukdikomersilkan.

7/23/2004 (BERNAMA) NEW DELHI-- Delayed monsoon and deficient rains in themain oilseeds growing areas of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat,are likely to affect adversely the 'Kharif' (summer) oilseeds production.

7/22/04 (Oilmandi) - India - COMPLEXITIES in the duty structure of thevegetable oils industry, and objections arising there from, seem to benever ending. Differences in customs duty, quality of imported materialand in the integrity of players all make decision-making tough for revenueofficials.

7/23/04 (Oilmandi) - Malaysia's biggest plantation firm by market value,IOI Corp , said on Thursday it had agreed to buy a palm oil refiner for$24 million to expand its specialty fats business. IOI's wholly ownedDutch unit, Loders Croklaan Group, a vegetable oils refiner, will pay 2.05million ringgit cash and assume 87.14 million ringgit ($22.9 million) ofdebt to purchase Soctek Sdn Bhd from Singapore's Ugreat Holdings Pte Ltd.

(The opinions expressed in this article represent the views of leadingpalm oil market analyst Ivan Wong. They should not be seen as necessarilyreflecting the views of Reuters)KUALA LUMPUR, July 22 - Our estimate on palm oil supply and offtake inJune is very much in line with MPOB figures. On the supply side, CPOproduction rose 6.4 percent, or 70,500 tonnes, to 1.17 million tonnes.This is 5000 tonnes higher than our estimate and reflected primarily anincrease of 3.4 percent, or 14,700 tonnes, in East Malaysia. Production inSabah managed to post an increase of 3.8 percent, or 13,600 tonnes, withthe oil extraction rate (OER) remaining unchanged at 21.08 percent, asagainst our expectation to a decline. The oil extraction rate in Sarawakdropped to 20.61 percent from 21.39 percent in May and trimmed theincrease in CPO output to just 1.4 percent. On an annual basis, productionshrank four percent in the country. This was an improvement from acontraction of 6.3 percent in May and 7.4 percent in April. This recoveryin yields is expected to be extended into July with the contraction likelyto be around two percent. Yields are projected to reverse to positive fromAugust onwards. Production in July is tentatively estimated to register amonth-on-month increase of eight percent. This assumes no further declinesin the oil extraction rate in both Peninsular Malaysia and East Malaysia.Production in January-June at 5.957 million tonnes posted a negativegrowth of 2.3 percent and fell short of MPOB projections by 3.8 percent.The MPOB is nevertheless confident production for the whole year willregister a positive growth of one to two percent. MPOB's projection forthe whole year is achievable if the downtrend in the oil extraction ratein East Malaysia is not extended into the second-half year. It had droppedto 21.06 percent in the first-six months form 21.46 percent in thecorresponding period of last year. In contrast, the oil extraction rate inPeninsular Malaysia rose to 19.15 percent from 18.59 percent.Palm oil offtake fell some 55,000 tonnes to 1.05 million tonnes inJune. The decline was due entirely to disappointing exports which droppedto 886,400 tonnes. However, it would not surprise us if the final exportfigure is revised upward closer to 900,000 tonnes. On an annual basis,palm oil exports fell a hefty 161,700 tonnes in June. This was the biggestmonthly contraction so far this year and the fourth consecutive month ofshrinkage. Shipments in the three months to June contracted 335,000 tonnesto 2.785 million tonnes. This more than offset the growth of 222,800tonnes in the first quarter. January-June shipments consequently fell112,400 tonnes ot 5.532 million tonnes. The negative export performancewas due predominantly to a hefty drop of 455,000 tonnes, or 51.7 percent,to 425,400 tonnes in shipments to India, as India had slashed its importsof palm oil by 458,000 tonnes in January-June. Malaysia was thus the soleloser - its palm oil market share shrank to 26.3 percent from 12.4 percentin January-June last year and 58.3 percent two year ago.If loss of market share in India is not bad enough, Malaysia has alsoemerged as a major and growing market for Indonesian palm oil exports.Malaysia's palm oil imports in January-June surged 84.4 percent or 196,900tonnes to 430,300 tonnes. Given the poor export performance and robustimports, it is thus not difficult to understand why palm oil stocks inMalaysia at the end of June had risen to 1.211 million tonnes. Thisrepresents an increase of 165,600 tonnes from a month earlier and anincrease of 252,900 tonnes from end-March. Compared to June last year,stocks were 216,000 tonnes higher. Despite prospects of a marked recoveryin exports to 1.07 million tonnes this month, we see a further big buildupin stocks to above 1.3 million tonnes by the end of the month.India had drastically reduced its imports of edible oils by 941,400tonnes to 2.404 million tonnes during the eight-month period to June 2004.In April-June alone imports slumped 996,600 tonnes to 773,900 tonnes oraround 245,000 tonnes a month. This severe reduction was due primarily tothe negative response of the market to high price during March-May,especially when exorbilantly high import duties are taken intoconsideration. India cannot deny it has both tariff and non-tariffbarriers to discourage what it deems excessive imports. It raised theimport duty on RBD olein/RBD palm oil from 70 percent to 75 percent onJuly 8 and avoided the urgency to lower the tariff values on palm oil whenit conveniently ignored transacted values in recent weeks which had fallen18 percent since November last year. Vegoil price in India andinternational markets firmed in recent days on account of concerns overthe lack of rains in major oilseed growing areas in India in the pastthree weeks.