Palm oil prices higher

Malaysian palm futures rose 5.57pc on Monday to finish at a new high in nearly 12 weeks, supported by rising crude oil prices and strong palm oil exports, traders said.

The benchmark March palm oil contract on the Bursa Malaysia’s Derivatives Exchange rose 97 ringgit, or 5.57 per cent, to 1,837 ringgit ($531) per ton, the highest closing level since Oct. 15. The contract hit a high of 1,846 ringgit earlier.

Other trader contracts rose between 33 ringgit and 123 ringgit. The overall volume stood at 15,018 lots of 25 tons each.

The analyst said he did not think Malaysian palm export growth would be sustained in coming months, as demand was likely to slow again after the Chinese New Year festivities at the end of January.

Another cargo surveyor, Intertek Testing Services, said on Friday exports of palm oil products for December rose 24.5 per cent to 1,654,700 tons from November.

December export numbers were at an all-time high for monthly exports as producers shipped cargoes which were not taken earlier by buyers, a trader has said.

In Indonesia, the world’s largest palm oil producer, the state marketing centre sold 2,000 tons of palm oil at a top price of 6,162 rupiah ($0.57) per kg, on the first auction after a two-week break.

Before the holiday, the centre, which normally sells palm oil from state plantations, sold crude palm oil at a top price of 5,358 rupiah per kg on Dec. 23.

Meanwhile, refiners in Jakarta sold refined, bleached, deodorised (RBD) palm oil, used as cooking oil, at about 6,500 rupiah per kg, up from about 6,100 rupiah per kg on Dec. 30.

In physical market, Malaysian palm oil for January/February deliveries were traded at 1,800-1,840 ringgit per ton in the southern region and at 1,800-1,830 ringgit a ton in the central region.—Reuters