The Edge Markets (20/03/2018) - KUALA LUMPUR (March 20): Malaysian palm oil futures climbed in Tuesday evening's trade to chart a second straight session of gains on the back of stronger export data.

The benchmark palm oil contract for June delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange rose 0.4% to 2,435 ringgit (US$621.97) a tonne at the close of trade. 

It rose as much as 0.9% earlier in its trading session before paring some gains. Trading volumes stood at 50,459 lots of 25 tonnes each on Tuesday evening.

"The market is up on stronger export figures today," said a palm oil futures trader, referring to data released by an inspection company before the midday break.

Exports of Malaysian palm oil products for March 1-20 rose 15.3% to 913,091 tonnes, from the 791,992 tonnes shipped during Feb 1-20, AmSpec Agri Malaysia said.

Cargo surveyor Societe Generale de Surveillance reported that exports in the same duration rose 13.6% as shipments to China, Pakistan and India improved.

Palm oil exports from Malaysia, the world's second largest producer, are expected to pick up in the coming weeks as buyers stock up ahead of Ramadan which begins in mid-May this year.

The Muslim holy month sees devotees break day-long fasts with communal feasting, which incurs higher usage of palm oil for cooking purposes. Buyers in regions such as the Middle East usually start increasing purchases of palm oil one to two months ahead of the festivities.

In other related oils, the Chicago Board of Trade's May soybean oil contract was down 0.1%, while the May soybean oil on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange fell 0.3%. 

The Dalian May palm oil contract, however, rose 0.7%.

Palm oil prices are impacted by movements in rival edible oils, as they compete in the global vegetable oils market.    

 Palm, soy and crude oil prices as of 1040 GMT

 Contract                     Month    Last   Change    Low   High   Volume
 MY PALM OIL             APR8     2450    +17.00    2422    2462      936
 MY PALM OIL              MAY8   2447   +12.00    2420    2458     6532
 MY PALM OIL              JUN8     2439   +14.00    2410    2448    23204
 CHINA PALM OLEIN  MAY8   5130   +36.00    5054    5146   344162
 CHINA SOYOIL           MAY8    5660   -14.00    5606    5692   330320
 CBOT SOY OIL            MAY8   32.03    -0.03    31.89    32.15    4920
 INDIA PALM OIL        MAR8   641.80   +3.20   638.80  642.7     378
 INDIA SOYOIL           MAR8     765.1   -0.60   764.65    766.5     380
 NYMEX CRUDE         APR8      62.51   +0.45   62.08    62.78    2121

  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
  India soy oil in Indian rupee per 10 kg
  Crude in U.S. dollars per barrel

 (US$1 = 3.9150 ringgit)
 (US$1 = 65.2175 Indian rupees)
 (US$1 = 6.3289 Chinese yuan)

Read more at http://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/palm-oil-gains-stronger-export-data