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Aug 12, 2010
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Palm oil almost flat before USDA report, exports eyed

By
Reuters
Published
Aug 12, 2010

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 12 (Reuters) - Malaysian crude palm oil futures barely moved on Thursday as traders awaited a key U.S. report on world grains demand and supply that has recently driven vegetable oil markets.


Photo : Corbis

But some investors were concerned that the palm oil market may come under some pressure if export demand slows further on a recent rally that pushed palm oil to a 15-month high earlier this week.

The U.S. government is set to forecast a bigger decline in world wheat stocks and a modest drop in global production as Russia's worst drought in over a century halts exports and threatens to whither the next crop.

"There's not much fundamental factors involved, everybody is watching out for the USDA report tonight... there'll be some disturbing factors," said a trader with Kuala Lumpur-based foreign brokerage.

The benchmark October crude palm oil contract KPOc3 on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange ended 4 ringgit lower to 2,673 ringgit ($843.2) per tonne. Overall volume doubled to 20,250 lot of 25 tonnes each.

Players are on the lookout for a downtrend in exports after cargo surveyors reported a 14 percent drop in Malaysian palm oil exports for the first 10 days in August thanks to China slowing purchases.

Oil slipped to around $77 a barrel in Asian hours, heading for a third straight session of losses, on lingering doubts over the outlook for fuel demand in the world's biggest energy consumers.

Other vegetable oils also eased in Asian hours as well. U.S. soyoil for September delivery BOU0 eased 0.22 percent and the most-active May soyoil contract DBYK1 on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange edged down 1 percent.

INDONESIA PALM TRADES

In Indonesia, Jakarta-based PT KBN Nusantara, formerly known as the state marketing centre, failed to sell 3,000 tonnes of crude palm oil for export in an auction on Thursday due to low bids. The firm offered $860 a tonne, while buyers bid at $850.50 a tonne.

Producers in Medan, home to Indonesia's main palm oil export port of Belawan, sold crude palm oil at between 8,141 rupiah ($0.908) to 8,163 rupiah per kg on Thursday.

Refiners in Jakarta offered refined, bleached, deodorised (RBD) palm olein -- used as cooking oil -- at 8,400 rupiah per kg, decline from 8,700 rupiah per kg the previous day.

PT Astra Agro Lestari (AALI.JK) offered 250 tonnes of super palm kernel oil (PKO) offered in an auction on Thursday at $1,240 per tonne.

Buyers bid at $1,138-$1,176 per tonne for the super PKO ex-factory Sari Aditya Loka 1 in Teluk Bayur, Jambi.


(Additional reporting by Fitri Wulandari and Telly Nathalia)

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