Malaysian crude palm oil futures inched higher on Thursday as oil markets surged but top vegetable oil buyer India cuttion rival soyoil dented some sentiment. Indias latest move feeds into fears that demand for palm oil would not be sustained beyond the second half of this month as palm oil trades at a slight premium to competitor soyoil.
The benchmark June contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange settled up 6 ringgit at 1,911 ringgit ($523.3) per tonne after rising as high as 1,945 ringgit. Other traded months mostly fell except for the July contract, which rose 22 ringgit. Overall volumes doubled to 21,334 lots of 25 tonnes each.
India has cut import duty on soyoil to keep domestic prices stable, Trade Secretary G.K. Pillai told reporters on Thursday. Pillai did not give details but traders said import tax on crude soyoil, currently at 20 percent, may be totally withdrawn like on crude palm oil that is imported duty free.
Cargo surveyors Societe Generale de Surveillance and Intertek Testing Services will unveil March 1-20 Malaysian palm oil shipments on Friday. Traders are forecasting a roughly 9 percent fall to 720,000 tonnes from about 794,000 tonnes February 1-20. Oil rallied to $49 a barrel on Thursday after a move by the Federal Reserve to buy government bonds on a large scale hit the dollar and revived hopes the US economy could soon begin its recovery. [O/R]
Soy also rallied above than 3 percent, tracking oil and US equities, while export worries from Argentina underpinned overall soy prices. US soyoil delivery for May jumped 3 percent while the most-active September soybean oil contract on Chinas Dalian Exchange climbed 2.5 percent.
INDONESIA PALM TRADES: In Indonesia, the worlds top producer of palm oil, the Jakarta-based state marketing centre said it sold 1,500 tonnes of palm oil, just about a third of the total amount it offered at 7,207 rupiah ($0.606) per kg, against 7,301 rupiah ($0.610) per kg on Wednesday.
Producers in Medan - home to Belawan port, Indonesias main palm oil export port - sold palm oil at 7,170-7,200 rupiah per kg. They did not hold a palm oil tender the day earlier. Refiners in Jakarta offered refined, bleached, deodorised (RBD) palm oil, used as cooking oil, at 7,675 rupiah per kg, against 7,700 rupiah per kg on Wednesday. In the Malaysian physical market, palm oil for March was quoted at 2,025-2,040 ringgit per tonne in the southern region. Trades were done between 2,030 and 2,040 ringgit.