Palm scales record high on reduced Indonesia supply outlook

SINGAPORE: Malaysian palm oil futures briefly touched a record high of 5,700 ringgit per tonne in early trade on Monday before encountering light profit-taking, as traders tried to factor in reduced supplies from top producer and exporter Indonesia.

The benchmark palm oil contract for April delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange ended the pre-Lunar New Year holiday half-day trading session down 0.73% at 5,587 ringgit ($1,331.19) per tonne.

The Bursa will remain closed until Feb. 3.

Indonesian authorities shocked global edible oil markets last week by implementing a new rule that made it mandatory for palm oil producers to sell 20% of their output to domestic consumers at fixed prices.

Palm hits new record

The rule change has clouded the outlook for crude palm oil supplies from Indonesia, and upended global edible oil markets by making what is traditionally the cheapest vegetable oil the costliest among the three major edible oils traded across the world.

Fundamentals

• Indonesia, the world's biggest palm oil producer and exporter, has set the crude palm oil reference price for February at $1,314.78 per tonne, up from January's 1,307.76 per tonne, the Trade Ministry said in a statement on Friday.

• India, the top edible oil importer, is likely to set aside about 3 trillion rupees ($40 billion) on food and fertiliser subsidies in its budget next week for 2022/23, officials said, roughly the same amount the government budgeted for this fiscal year ending in March.

• Chicago March 2022 soybean futures stretched to fresh life-of-contract highs in early trade on Monday to extend their run higher on worries about the scale of drought-hit crops from South America.

• Chicago's most-active soyoil contract rose 1.75% to 66.41 cents a pound, its highest since June 2021, at 0449 GMT. Soymeal futures were up 1.3% at $416.70 a short ton.

• China's main commodity futures markets will be closed until Feb. 7 due to the Lunar New Year/Spring Festival holiday.

• Palm oil is affected by price movements in related oils as they compete for a share in the global vegetable oils market.

• Palm oil may test a resistance at 5,676 ringgit per tonne, a break above which could lead to a gain into the 5,749-5,794 ringgit range.