Palm oil edges down on slower exports

Malaysian palm oil futures edged down on Wednesday evening in a second day of falls, tracking weaker related edible oils and on the back of weaker export data from cargo surveyors. The benchmark palm oil contract for January delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was down 0.9 percent at 2,150 ringgit a tonne at the end of the trading day.
The market is currently trading at three-week lows, and shed 1.1 percent in October. Trading volumes stood at 28,597 lots of 25 tonnes each at Wednesday's close of trade. "The market is down on lower export figures," said a Singapore-based futures trader, referring to shipment data from three cargo surveyors released on Wednesday.
Malaysia's palm oil exports in October fell 14.1 percent versus the previous month, Intertek Testing Services reported. Meanwhile, Societe Generale de Surveillance and independent inspection company AmSpec Agri Malaysia announced a 12.4 percent and 12.9 percent decline for the same time period respectively.
Palm oil exports typically slow towards the end of the year as key markets such as China have lower temperatures, in which palm oil solidifies, leading to higher purchases of alternative oils that do not freeze as easily. Earlier in the day, another Kuala Lumpur-based trader said weakness in soyaoil on the US Chicago Board of Trade and palm olein on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange may weigh on palm.
"Market players may stay sidelined ahead of any announcements or outlook from the GAPKI conference," he added. The Indonesian Palm Oil Association or GAPKI is scheduled to hold its industry conference on Thursday and Friday. In other related oils, the Chicago December soyabean oil contract edged down 0.1 percent, while the January soyabean oil contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange fell 0.6 percent.
Meanwhile, the Dalian January palm oil contract dropped 0.2 percent. Palm oil prices are affected by movements of other edible oils as they compete for a share in the global vegetable oil market. Palm oil may fall to 2,138 ringgit per tonne, as suggested by its wave pattern and a projection analysis, said Wang Tao, a Reuters market analyst for commodities and energy technicals.