JAKARTA: Malaysian palm oil futures hit an eleven-month low on Monday, as other vegetable oils traded lower and expectations of weak demand and higher output in the coming weeks weighed on prices.
By the close, benchmark palm oil for October on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange ended 3.1 percent lower at 2,055 ringgit ($534) a tonne.
Prices earlier fell to 2,049 ringgit, their lowest since Sept. 11.
Traded volume stood at 39,909 lots of 25 tonnes each, above the roughly 35,000 lots usually traded by the close.
"Dalian is down," said a trader with a foreign commodities brokerage in Kuala Lumpur. "U.S. soybean oil on Friday night was also down. These are the main factors in the market. External markets are weak."
The uncertain demand outlook, exacerbated by concerns about top buyer China, was overshadowing any upside from the impact of dry weather from the El Nino weather pattern, the trader added.
In other vegetable oils, the U.S. August soyoil contract eased 1.6
percent during late Asian trade, while the most active soybean oil contract
on the Dalian Commodity Exchange slipped 1.9 percent.
U.S. soybeans and corn futures slid for a second session on Monday due to
forecasts of near-perfect weather across the U.S. Midwest, which promises bumper
supplies.
Cargo surveyors' data on Friday for exports of Malaysian palm oil products
in July came in lower than expected.
"Exports in August don't look so good (and) production will rise in August,"
said a second palm trader on the supply outlook.
Highlighting the trend of lower prices for the tropical oil, Indonesia's
export tax for crude palm oil in August will be zero percent, unchanged from
July, a trade ministry official said late on Friday.
Also on the downside, crude oil fell to its lowest in six months, knocked by
fresh evidence of growing oversupply and data highlighting slowing demand in
China, leaving crude prices set for their weakest third-quarter performance
since 2008.
Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 1016 GMT
Contract Month Last Change Low High Volume
MY PALM OIL AUG5 2056 -64.00 2056 2095 398
MY PALM OIL SEP5 2055 -63.00 2052 2106 3110
MY PALM OIL OCT5 2055 -65.00 2049 2112 19269
CHINA PALM OLEIN JAN6 4644 -126.00 4632 4762 672702
CHINA SOYOIL JAN6 5402 -106.00 5382 5500 497370
CBOT SOY OIL DEC5 29.94 -9.00 29.88 30.46 8128
INDIA PALM OIL AUG5 407.50 -9.00 407.10 415.20 1395
INDIA SOYOIL AUG5 566.40 -8.30 566.40 572.50 37200
NYMEX CRUDE SEP5 46.37 -0.75 46.26 46.94 35507
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 = 3.8510 ringgit)
($1 = 64.0100 Indian rupees)
($1 = 6.2087 Chinese yuan)
- Reuters
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