Malaysian palm futures dropped 1.2 percent on Thursday on mounting fears that exports could falter as buyers hunt for already dwindling supplies, traders said. The benchmark August contract on Bursa Malaysia's Derivatives Exchange fell 32 ringgit to 2,570 ringgit ($729.7) per tonne by midday. Overall volume stood at 9,411 lots of 25 tonnes each.
"There could be a reverse in trends. Demand is there but it will wilt if there is not enough supply. I have ships waiting at Malaysian ports but no palm oil to take away," said a trader with a foreign commodities brokerage. Palm oil prices have surged 51 percent so far in 2009 on tight vegetable oil supplies from soy-exporting South America to palm-producing Indonesia and Malaysia but have fallen back slightly as investors feel the market has been overbought.
Malaysian palm exports for May 1-20 have ranged between 745,000 to 755,000 tonnes, cargo surveyor data showed, which is some 20 to 30 percent lower than normal even although there has been some growth from the same period a month ago, traders have said.
US soybean futures edged lower on Thursday after surging to their highest level in nearly eight months on lingering concerns over tight old-crop supplies. Soyoil for July contract at the Chicago Board of Trade slipped in Asian hours and the most-active September soyoil contract on Dalian's Commodity Exchange also weakened. In the Malaysian physical market, palm oil for May and June was traded between 2,720-2,730 ringgit per tonne in the southern and central regions.
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