KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures logged a near 15% plunge for the week, its biggest weekly drop since mid-March, weighed by weakness in prices of soy oil and a rising production outlook.
The benchmark palm oil contract for September delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange slid 88 ringgit, or 1.85%, to 4,656 ringgit ($1,058.18) a tonne, after hitting an intraday low of 4.7%.
For the week, it is down 14.6%, its third straight weekly decline.
“Losses in soybean oil and strong production from the Malaysian Palm Oil Association emerging at the high end of expectations triggered a selloff on the futures this morning,” said Sathia Varqa, co-founder of Singapore-based Palm Oil Analytics. He also expects June 1-25 exports to decline.
The Malaysian Palm Oil Association on Thursday estimated that production during June 1-20 likely rose 15.9% from the month before, traders said.
Indonesian farmers want authorities to scrap a requirement for exporters to sell a portion of their palm oil domestically, a move that should boost shipments and mean mills pay more for fresh fruit bunches (FFBs), the smallholder farmers’ group APKASINDO, said.
Officials from some G7 countries, including Germany and Britain, will push for temporary waivers on biofuels mandates to combat soaring food prices when leaders from the group of wealthy nations meet on Sunday, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Dalian’s most-active soyoil contract fell 3.3%, while its palm oil contract slipped 4.4%.
Soyoil prices on the Chicago Board of Trade were flat, after tumbling 5.3% overnight on concerns that a slowing global economy could limit demand Palm oil is affected by price movements in related oils as they compete for a share in the global vegetable oils market.
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