Bloomberg Malaysian Palm Oil Stockpiles Drop to 17-Month Low

March 11 (Bloomberg) -- Palm oil stockpiles in Malaysia, the world’s second-largest producer, declined 15 percent in February from a month earlier to their lowest in 17 months.

Inventories of the edible oil dropped to 1.56 million metric tons, the Malaysian Palm Oil Board said today. That’s the lowest since September 2007, when they totaled 1.46 million, according to Bloomberg data.

Lower stockpiles may help to support an advance in prices on the Malaysia Derivatives Exchange, which trades the benchmark contract. The most-active contract was at 1,990 ringgit ($539) a ton at the market’s midday break after declining 0.3 percent.

Palm oil output in February fell 11 percent to 1.19 million tons, while exports dropped 7.2 percent to 1.26 million tons, according to the release from the Malaysian Palm Oil Board.

Malaysia’s palm oil stockpiles reached a record 2.27 million tons in November. Indonesia is the world’s largest producer of palm oil, which is used in foods, cosmetics and fuels.

For Related News and Information:

Stories on palm oil markets: TNI PALMOIL AGMARKET BN Stories on Malaysia palm oil: TNI MALAY PALMOIL BN Stories on Indonesia palm oil: TNI INDO PALMOIL BN

--Editors: Jake Lloyd-Smith, Wendy Pugh
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