Malaysian palm oil hits 6-month high on tight supply, monsoon woes

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures rose for a third day to hit a near six-month high on Thursday, on fears that supplies of the tropical oil will be further tightened by another round of monsoon rains in the No.2 grower. 
    The Malaysian Meteorological Department raised its weather
warning on Thursday to an "orange stage" from a "yellow stage",
and forecast the states Johor, Pahang, Terengganu and Kelantan
to receive heavy rains until the end of the week.
    Johor and Pahang are the top palm-producing states in
Peninsular Malaysia and account for 30 percent of the country's
palm output this year, according to the Malaysian Palm Oil
Board. 
    "Supply in the near term is tight. We don't know what the
damage will be for January," said a trader with a foreign
commodities brokerage in Malaysia. 
    The trader added that until worries of floods ease, prices
will likely remain propped up between 2,320 ringgit and 2,420
ringgit.  
    The benchmark March contract hit its highest since
July 11 before settling with a 1.7 percent gain at 2,369 ringgit
 ($665) per tonne by Thursday's close. The contract hit a high
of 2,379 ringgit in late trade.
    Total traded volume stood at 47,148 lots of 25 tonnes, above
the usual 35,000 lots.    
    Traders said the palm oil contract was earlier anticipated
to be weak as crude oil prices plunged and dented palm's
biodiesel uptake.
    But monsoon flooding, worse than usual last year, disrupted
harvesting and logistics in some parts of Peninsular Malaysia.
The squeeze in supplies may now last longer than expected,
industry players say. 
    A fall in the Malaysian ringgit also helped boost benchmark
prices nearly 25 percent from its over five-year low of 1,914
ringgit touched in September. 
    "What happened at end-December is that the floods came into
the picture and the ringgit continuously weakened," the
Malaysia-based trader added.
    "The bearishness in crude is being ignored. Those who sold
earlier are buying back."   
    The Malaysian currency, which has faced intense
selling pressure over the past few weeks from concerns that
tumbling oil prices would impact the country's fiscal position,
pulled off 5-1/2-year lows against the dollar on Thursday to
rise 0.4 percent to 3.5650.         
    Brent bounced around $51 a barrel on Thursday as bulls and
bears tugged at both ends in their search for a bottom in the
second-biggest price rout on record. 
    In other vegetable oil markets, the U.S. soyoil contract for
March rose 0.8 percent in late trade, while the most
active May soybean oil contract on the Dalian Commodity
Exchange gained 0.6 percent.
  
  Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 1003 GMT
                                                                                                                                                
  Contract        Month    Last   Change     Low    High  Volume
  MY PALM OIL      JAN5    2380   +31.00    2370    2380     165
  MY PALM OIL      FEB5    2383   +37.00    2349    2389    2141
  MY PALM OIL      MAR5    2369   +39.00    2331    2379   21112
  CHINA PALM OLEIN MAY5    5062   +30.00    5038    5088  473784
  CHINA SOYOIL     MAY5    5736   +36.00    5712    5772  434430
  CBOT SOY OIL     MAR5   33.44    -0.70   33.15   33.60    4868
  INDIA PALM OIL   JAN5  468.00    -0.70  467.00  473.90    1193
  INDIA SOYOIL     JAN5  669.00    +0.00  667.20  675.00   26685
  NYMEX CRUDE      FEB5   48.78    +0.13   48.42   49.65   36749
                                                                                                                                                
  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
  
($1 = 3.5650 Malaysian ringgit)    
($1 = 6.2145 Chinese yuan)
($1 = 62.64 Indian rupee)
- Reuetrs