Pakistan's palm oil traders are expected to place fresh buying orders in the coming days as the domestic market remains bullish amid stable world prices and buoyant local demand, dealers said on Wednesday. Buying had also increased on talks of duty adjustments on crude palm oil and olein in the government's budget for the financial year 2005/06 (July-June) expected next month, they said. "Imports are on the higher side in May, compared with April," said Kamran Ahmad, a Karachi-based dealer.
"In the first four days of May, importers have booked around 50,000 tonnes, while in April a total of 90,000 import orders were made. That is why the market and prices are firm," he added.
Dealers said most buying came from big players, who were covering positions prior to the federal budget on top of the routine buying.
"The buyers are in an aggressive mood. We anticipate at least 80,000 to 100,000 tonnes of imports in the next two to three weeks," Ahmad said.
Dealers estimated traders had around 60,000 tonnes of unsold stocks - enough to meet local demand until the third week of May.
Pakistan imports about 1.3 million tonnes of edible oil products annually, mostly Malaysian palm oil and olein, to meet domestic demand of 1.9 million tonnes.
Locally produced cottonseed meets the rest of the demand.
A good cotton crop for 2004/05 (May-March) helped Pakistan produce about 580,000 tonnes of cottonseed this season, up from the previous year's 400,000.
Dealers quoted palm olein at 1,645 rupees per maund (37.32 kg), unchanged from the previous week.
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