Malaysian crude palm oil futures fell 1.3 percent on Monday, extending last week's losses as weaker export data sparked some selling late in the session. The price of the tropical oil - used in various products from soap to biodiesel - briefly broke the major resistance level of 2,000 ringgit two weeks ago, but failed to hold above it on demand concerns.
"Declining exports is the big elephant in the room. There is talk of palm oil stocks in February not coming off current levels or even inching up 1-2 percent," said a trader with a foreign commodities brokerage. The benchmark May contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange settled up 24 ringgit to 1,871 Malaysian ringgit ($502.6).
Other traded contracts fell between 9 and 30 ringgit. Overall volume was 15,122 lots of 25 tonnes each compared to the usual 10,000 lots. Exports of Malaysian palm oil products for February fell 8.3 percent to 1,168,539 tonnes from 1,273,690 tonnes shipped in January, cargo surveyor Intertek Testing Services said on Saturday.
Cargo surveyor Societe Generale de Surveillance reported declines of 12.4 percent to 1,161,125 tonnes from 1,325,353 tonnes shipped in January. The US soy complex dropped on the possibility of farmers from Argentina, a top soybean exporter, selling their stocks after sources said the centre-left government was mulling nationalisation of the grains trade.
In electronic trading, most active soyoil for May delivery at the Chicago Board of Trade slipped 0.8 percent while the most active September soyoil contract on China's Dalian exchange crept up. Oil prices fell below $44 per barrel on Monday on worries the deteriorating state of the world economy would further damage oil consumption.
INDONESIA PALM TRADES In Indonesia, the world's biggest palm oil producer, palm prices were steady as supplies are tight, traders said. The Jakarta-based state marketing centre said it sold the entire 5,000 tonnes of palm oil it offered at a top price of 7,054 rupiah ($0.588) per kg, up from 7,035 rupiah per kg on Friday.
The centre normally sells palm oil from state plantations. In another tender in Jakarta, Indonesia's biggest listed plantation firm PT Astra Agro Tbk sold the entire 4,000 tonnes of palm oil at a top price of 7,075 rupiah per kg. Producers in Medan - home to Belawan port - Indonesia's main palm oil export port did not hold a palm tender.
Meanwhile, refiners in Jakarta offered refined, bleached, deodorised (RBD) palm oil, used as cooking oil, at 7,600 rupiah per kg, unchanged from Friday. In the Malaysian physical market, palm oil for March was quoted at 1,920-1,930 ringgit per tonne in the southern region. Trades were done between 1,925 and 1,930 ringgit.