Palm falls to one-week low on weak demand outlook, stronger ringgit

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures declined in early trade on Monday, hitting a one-week low in early session, weighed down by a weakening demand outlook and a stronger ringgit.

Gains in the ringgit, palm's currency of trade, usually make the oil more expensive for holders of foreign currencies. The ringgit strengthened 0.3 percent against the dollar around noon on Monday to 3.9030.

The benchmark palm oil contract for June delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was down 0.45 percent to 2,417 ringgit ($619.27) a tonne at the midday break. It earlier fell to 2,416 ringgit, its lowest since March 20.

Trading volumes stood at 8,381 lots of 25 tonnes each.

"The ringgit is stronger today and, going forward, the

market feels that April exports will decline as duties are imposed," said a futures trader from Kuala Lumpur, referring to Malaysia's resumption of crude palm oil export taxes in April.

Malaysia in early January suspended its export tax on crude palm oil for three months to increase demand and boost prices, as it expected stockpiles to grow in 2018.

While Malaysian palm oil demand is expected to rise in the short term before the export tax kicks in, the market expects exports to slump from April onwards as buyers switch to more competitively priced Indonesian palm.

Inspection company AmSpec Agri Malaysia reported on Monday that Malaysian palm oil shipments rose 9.5 percent between March 1-25 versus the same period last month.

The trader also added that expectations of rising production for the full month of March is also weighing on sentiment. Palm oil output typically sees seasonal gains around the second quarter of the year before peaking in the third quarter.

In other related oils, the Chicago Board of Trade's May soybean oil contract rose 0.5 percent, while the May soybean oil on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange fell 0.1 percent.

The Dalian May palm oil contract declined 0.2 percent.

Palm oil prices are impacted by movements in rival edible oils as they compete in the global vegetable oils market.