Malaysian palm oil price soars, tracking gains in soy oil markets

• Oct 24, 2017

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures climbed 1.7 percent on Monday, tracking gains in soybean oil and other edible oil contracts on the Dalian Commodity Exchange.

The benchmark palm oil contract for January delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange rose to 2,787 ringgit ($657.93) a tonne by the evening.

Traded volumes at the end of Monday stood at 55,937 lots of 25 tonnes each.

Traders said the upward movements on rival edible oil markets have buoyed palm prices.

“Looks like the market is responding to … bean oil gains last week due to a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) decision,” a Kuala Lumpur-based futures trader said.

The December soybean oil contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) rose 0.4 percent on Monday after last week’s retreat by the EPA from a series of proposed changes to the nation’s biofuels policy that would have reduced demand last week.

Palm prices are affected by movements of related oils that compete for a share in the global vegetable oils market.

“Strong bean oil and Dalian (prices) are holding up the market now, but sentiment could fall back to being cautious ahead of Oct. 1-20 production figures from the Malaysian Palm Oil Association,” another trader said.

Data from the Southern Palm Oil Millers Association (SPPOMA) on Monday showed that production for the Oct. 1-20 period rose 20.6 percent from the same period last year, the trader added.

Two Kuala Lumpur-based futures traders also attributed palm market gains to strong exports.

Exports of palm oil products for Oct. 1-20 rose 11.6 percent to 951,339 tonnes from 852,206 tonnes shipped a month earlier, cargo surveyor Intertek Testing Services said on Friday.

The January soybean oil contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange was up 0.9 percent at the end of Monday, while the January palm olein contract rose 2 percent. – Reuters

Source: http://www.thestar.com.my/business/business-news/2017/10/24/palm-soars-tracking-gains-in-soy-oil-markets/#CdmtWliVdYyBYGsH.99