11/02/2012 (Reuters) - Malaysian crude palm oil fell on Friday on the back of a bearish U.S. crop report and prospects of slowing demand, although losses were capped by a long-awaited bailout deal for Greece which has yet to be approved.

The U.S Department of Agriculture on Thursday forecast larger-than-expected soybean supplies in its monthly report even as a severe drought curbed yields in Brazil and Argentina, putting pressure on palm oil prices, which track soybean oil closely.

"The market's a little bearish because it expects a steeper production drop in the South American crop," said a dealer with a foreign commodities brokerage in Kuala Lumpur.

"However, the low production season in the first quarter and improving demand from China and India should support crude palm oil prices in the range of 3,000 to 3,200 ringgit in the near term," added the dealer.

Benchmark April palm oil futures on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange lost 0.5 percent to close at 3,131 ringgit ($1,034) per tonne. The futures market has lost 1.4 percent so far this year.

Traded volumes were thin at 22,375 lots of 25 tonnes each, compared to the usual 25,000 lots.

Reuters market analyst Wang Tao said palm oil futures will retrace further to 3,084 ringgit per tonne as they have completed a rebound from the Feb. 2 low of 3,036 ringgit.

Malaysia's January palm oil stocks fell 2.5 percent to 2,007,967 tonnes from a revised 2,058,400 tonnes in December, industry regulator Malaysian Palm Oil Board said on Friday, in line with market expectations.

A Reuters survey of six plantation houses earlier showed Malaysia's palm oil stocks in January probably fell to a five-month low to nearly 2 million tonnes as a drop in exports outran a fall in production.

On the demand side, cargo surveyor Intertek Testing Services said Malaysian palm oil exports from Feb. 1 to 10 fell 7.7 percent to 342,982 tonnes from a month ago.

Another cargo surveyor Societe Generale de Surveillance said palm oil exports for the same period dropped 4.3 percent to 337,618 tonnes.

Some traders attributed the decline in exports to the shift in orders to top producer Indonesia which is selling at a discount due to its tax structure.

Brent crude slipped from a six-month high to below $118 a barrel on Friday as data from China showed a soaring trade surplus due to crumbling imports for January, stoking fears of a slowdown in demand from the world's second largest oil consumer.

The U.S. soyoil contract for March delivery slipped 0.3 percent in Asian trade on the back of the bearish USDA report while the most active September 2012 soyoil contract on China's Dalian Commodity exchange also fell 0.7 percent.

  Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 1002 GMT
                                                                     
  Contract                     Month    Last   Change     Low    High  Volume
  MY PALM OIL             FEB2       0    +0.00       0       0       0
  MY PALM OIL             MAR2    3141    -4.00    3117    3141    2029
  MY PALM OIL             APR2    3131   -17.00    3118    3142   11384
  CHINA PALM OLEIN SEP2    8190   -48.00    8176    8234   82294
  CHINA SOYOIL          SEP2    9220   -60.00    9202    9268  247782
  CBOT SOY OIL          MAR2   52.37    -0.17   52.12   52.61    4850
  NYMEX CRUDE        MAR2   99.07    -0.76   99.03   99.89   14683
                                                                     
  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
  
 * Bursa Malaysia holds its annual Palm and Lauric Oils
Conference & Exhibition Price Outlook 2012 from March 5 to 7 in
Kuala Lumpur. For details, see www.pocmalaysia.com 
($1=3.0280 Malaysian ringgit)