Malaysian palm futures fell 3.8 percent on Thursday, retreating from a nine-month top hit the previous day, as investors booked profits on fears that palm oil would outpace soyoil prices due to supply concerns. Traders said the tropical oil could price itself out of the market as cash prices for free on board palm olein stood at $855 for June, the same as rival Argentine soyoil and sunoil.
The benchmark July contract settled down 105 ringgit at 2,684 ringgit ($757.1) per tonne. Overall volume jumped to 17,659 lots of 25 tonnes each. Some traders expect Malaysian palm oil shipments data for May 1-15, due to be issued on Friday by cargo surveyors, to edge higher although others expect orders to fall due to the declining margins. Benchmark Malaysian palm prices, up 60 percent so far this year, renewed their rally this week after planters including IOI Corp and Sime Darby said yields might be cut due to the current dry spell in the Southeast Asian country.
Argentina is also facing a drought and the USDA estimated it would produce 34.0 million tonnes of the oilseed in 2008/09, down from 39.0 million tonnes estimated in April, although US soy is expected to make up for the shortfall.
INDONESIA PALM TRADES In Indonesia, the world's top producer of palm oil, the Jakarta-based state marketing centre sold crude palm oil at 8,675 rupiah ($0.836) per kg free on board Belawan and Dumai, down from 8,814 rupiah a kg on Wednesday. Producers in Medan - home to Belawan port, Indonesia's main palm oil export port - sold palm oil at 8,600 rupiah per kg. They did not hold any palm oil tenders the day before.
Refiners in Jakarta offered refined, bleached, deodorised (RBD) palm oil, used as cooking oil, at 8,700 rupiah a kg, unchanged from Wednesday. In the Malaysian physical market, trades were not done for crude palm oil for May and June in the southern region due to the weak margins.
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