Palm hits over 1-week high on exports, stronger related oils

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures were up over 1 percent at the midday break on Wednesday, hitting their highest in over a week on a rise in exports and tracking stronger related edible oils.

The benchmark palm oil contract for March delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was up 1.04 percent at 2,526 ringgit ($618.81) a tonne at the midday break, in line for a third consecutive day of gains.

It earlier rose to 2,538 ringgit, its strongest level since Dec. 18.

Trading volumes stood at 12,869 lots of 25 tonnes each at the midday break.

"Soyoil on the Chicago Board of Trade and refined, bleached and deodorized palm oil on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange are up," said a Kuala Lumpur-based trader.

"This month's exports have also come up marginally from being down earlier," he said, adding that market expectations of lower production for the full month of December added to the market's gains.

Exports of Malaysian palm oil products for Dec. 1-25 rose about 1 percent from a month earlier, data released by cargo surveyors Intertek Testing Services (ITS) and Societe Generale de Surveillance (SGS) showed on Tuesday.

This compares with a 16-22 percent decline during the Dec. 1-10 period versus the previous month.

Production, however, is seen declining until the first quarter of next year in line with the seasonal trend. It last declined 3.3 percent to 1.94 million tonnes in November.

Palm oil prices are also impacted by movements in other edible oils, as they compete for a share of the global vegetable oils market.

The March soybean oil contract on the Chicago Board of Trade was up 0.2 percent, while the May soybean oil contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange rose 0.8 percent.

In other related edible oils, the Dalian January palm oil contract rose 1.4 percent.