Feb. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Palm oil futures traded little changed in Malaysia amid speculation that production may be slowing even as demand is sustained during the global recession.
The price may be “well supported” at about 1,800 ringgit a metric ton amid signs of lower output, Penny Yaw, an analyst at Citigroup Inc., said Feb. 3. Exports from Malaysia, the second-largest producer, “should pick up by March,” Yaw wrote.
Palm oil for April traded at 1,850 ringgit ($497) a ton on the Malaysia Derivatives Exchange at the 12:30 p.m. local time break, 0.3 percent higher. Earlier, the contract gained as much as 0.5 percent to 1,855 ringgit, the fourth day of gains.
Planters in Southeast Asia are in a seasonal “low-crop” period, capping potential supply, Lee Oi Hian, chief executive officer of Kuala Lumpur Kepong, said this week. The head of the Malaysia’s third-largest grower was “bullish” about prices.
Malaysia’s palm oil exports fell 19 percent to 1.3 million tons in January from December’s record, Societe Generale de Surveillance, an independent cargo surveyor, estimated yesterday. The shipments in December helped cut a record inventory by 12 percent to 2 million tons.
“Cheaper prices, better supply seem to outweigh the recession when it comes to demand” for vegetable oils, the Home-Grown Cereals Authority of the U.K. said in a report on its Web site. “The very large palm oil stocks are one of the main reasons why vegetable oil prices have fallen so sharply.”
Palm oil, used mainly in cooking, is the cheapest cooking oil and the main substitute for soybean oil, which is produced mainly in the U.S., Argentina and Brazil.
Soybean oil for March delivery in Chicago rose 0.5 percent to 32.52 cents a pound at 12:45 p.m. Singapore time, making it about 40 percent more expensive than palm oil.
Soybean oil prices have dropped 40 percent in the past six months, with palm oil dropping 33 percent, according to Bloomberg data.
To contact the reporter on this story: Claire Leow in Singapore at cleow@bloomberg.net
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar