Palm oil eases on disappointing Malay exports

ROTTERDAM: Palm oil on the European vegetable oil market eased slightly on Wednesday after Malaysian palm oil futures declined on disappointing export numbers.

"The drop in palm oil exports was not a total surprise because of Chinese New Year, but with the current trend players start to worry whether we could see a renewed growth in palm oil stocks, which are still huge," one broker said.

Export data for the first 20 days of February were disappointing on Wednesday, with one cargo surveyor showing a 0.6 percent increase from the previous month and another reporting a slight drop.

Palm oil was offered between unchanged and $5 a tonne down from Tuesday after Malaysian palm oil futures closed between 2 ringgit per tonne up and 8 ringgit down, mostly unaffected by concerns over soybean crop yields in Argentina, due to dry weather.

April/June RBD palm olein traded $5 down from Tuesday at between $867.50 and $857.50 a tonne fob Malaysia, while July/Sept was unchanged between $875 and $870, and Oct/Dec fetched $880 and $877.50, up $2.50.

Crude palm oil changed hands at $857.50 a tonne cif Rotterdam for February shipment, while March shipment traded unchanged at $865 and $900 was paid for July/September.

At 1700 GMT CBOT soyoil was between 0.13 and 0.22 cents per lb down as speculators sold soyoil contracts and bought soymeal and beans on a mix of weak mineral oil prices and talk about Argentine soybean yields and renewed Chinese demand for US soybeans and meal.

Liquid oils - soyoil, sunoil and rapeoil - were offered between 6 euros per tonne up and 5 euros down on a mild recovery of the dollar and rapeseed futures that were a tad easier on lack of follow-through buying due to unfavorable crush margins.

May/July EU rapeoil changed hands at 925 and 920 euros per tonne fob exmill, down 3 euros from Tuesday, while Aug/Oct traded 2 euros up at 907 and 905 euros, and Nov/Jan fetched 910 euros.

EU sunoil traded at $1,267.50 a tonne extank for July/September, down $2.50 from Tuesday.

Lauric oils were offered flat to $5 a tonne up from Tuesday.