Malaysian palm oil supplies up, India switches to importing soyKuala Lumpur (Reuters) 6/19/2001- Malaysia’s palm oil futures were mostlystable at the close on Thursday with players ignoring bearish May cropdata and keeping their faith on a possible increase in Chinese purchasethis year.Private forecaster Ivan Wong said palm oil output was estimated to haverisen to 991,000 tonnes on May, up 7.5% from a month earlier. At theclose, Malaysia’s benchmark third-month August contract was up RM 3 at RM823 a tonne after trading as high as RM 825. Overall volume was 1,385lots. The official Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) was scheduled torelease May palm oil output, exports and end-month stocks figures onFriday, when cargo surveyor ITS and SGS will issue their June 1-15 exportdata.Industry sources say China issued 600,000 tonnes of palm oil import quotasin Jan for the first half of this year and for another 100,000 tonnes inMay. They said the quota for the second half of the year could reach800,000 tonnes, up from an earlier estimate of 700,000.But some traders believed Malaysia may lose any benefit reaped from suchincreased palm oil demand as India, their main customer, switches tosoybean oil to profit from lower import duties. The Solvent ExtractorsAssociation of India said on Thursday the country purchased around 260,000tonnes of soybean oil in Nov-April, but imports were expected to increaseto up to 800,000 tonnes in May-Oct because of the duty differential. Totalsoybean oil imports would be more than one million tonnes for the 2000 –2001 oil year (Nov-Oct) compared with 700,000 tonnes in 1999/2000, itsaid.In the physical sector, June crude palm oil (CPO) for the sector, for thesouthern and central region was offered at RM 815 a tonne against bids atRM 810. Trades were done at RM 810 to RM 812.50 for south and at RM 810for central.July CPO for the southern and central regions saw offers at RM 825 againstbids of RM 820. Trade was reported at RM 820 – 825 for south and at RM 820for central.Among refined products, June/July RBD palm oil was offered at US$ 235 atonne FOB. There were offers for June/July RBD olein at US$ 252.50 andJune RBD palm stearin was offered at US$ 182.50. June palm fatty aciddistillate was offered at US$ 152.50.