PALM NEWS MALAYSIAN PALM OIL BOARD Wednesday, 16 Jul 2025

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MARKET DEVELOPMENT
VEGOILS-Palm Ends Lower as Competing Soy Market Drag
calendar19-12-2013 | linkReuters | Share This Post:

19/12/2013 (Reuters) - Malaysian palm oil futures ended lower on Wednesday, following weaker competing soy markets in China and the United States, but prices were held up by the ringgit's poor performance and concerns of another wave of floods disrupting output of the tropical oil.

The U.S. soyoil contract for January fell 0.7 percent in late Asian trade, while the most active May soybean oil contract on the Dalian Commodities Exchange lost 0.4 percent.

Lower soyoil prices could channel food and fuel demand away from palm, a rival edible oil.

But the Malaysian ringgit, which fell 0.26 percent to trade at 3.2555 against the U.S. dollar late Wednesday, attracted buying interest from overseas investors and refiners as it made the ringgit-priced feedstock cheaper.

"The market went down because of the external bad news from China and the U.S. soybean oil markets," said a trader with a foreign commodities brokerage in Malaysia.

"But we have positive news from the ringgit weakness, and fear of another round of monsoon floods, which is keeping the market in range-trading between 2,550 and 2,600 ringgit," the trader added.

The benchmark March contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange had dropped 1.0 percent to 2,550 ringgit ($782) per tonne by Wednesday's close. Prices traded in a range between 2,545 ringgit and 2,583.

Total traded volume stood at 38,116 lots of 25 tonnes, slightly above the usual 35,000 lots.

A second wave of monsoon rains is expected to hit several states in Peninsular Malaysia, including palm-growing Johor and Pahang, Malaysia's Meteorological Department's website showed on Wednesday.

The department has pegged a "yellow stage" advisory for these areas where rains are expected to drag on until next Monday, and warned of floods in low-lying areas.

The first wave of floods two weeks ago forced nearly 60,000 people to evacuate.

Floods could tighten palm oil supplies by disrupting harvesting and transportation of palm fruit to mills. Fresh fruit that are not crushed in the same day have higher levels of free fatty acids, reducing its quality.

In other markets, Brent futures held steady above $108 a barrel on Wednesday after sliding the previous day, with investors reluctant to lock in positions ahead of a U.S. Federal Reserve briefing that is expected to shed light on a plan to taper its monetary stimulus.  

  Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 1007 GMT

  Contract        Month    Last   Change     Low    High  Volume
  MY PALM OIL      JAN4    2502   -30.00    2502    2535    1019
  MY PALM OIL      FEB4    2530   -31.00    2527    2565    8391
  MY PALM OIL      MAR4    2550   -26.00    2545    2583   18581
  CHINA PALM OLEIN MAY4    6088    +0.00    5984    6088  886816
  CHINA SOYOIL     MAY4    7008   -26.00    6930    7010  790586
  CBOT SOY OIL     JAN4   38.98    -0.33   38.96   39.45    4969
  NYMEX CRUDE      JAN4   97.16    -0.06   97.02   97.56    3711

  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
  Crude in U.S. dollars per barrel
 ($1 = 3.26 Malaysian ringgit)