KUALA LUMPUR (March 10): Malaysian palm oil futures fell more than 2% on Friday, tracking weakness in rival oils and on weak export data and mixed forecasts at an
industry conference this week.
Benchmark palm oil futures for May delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange were down for a second straight day, by 2.4% at 2,771 ringgit (US$623) a tonne at the close of trade, their sharpest daily drop in three weeks.
Earlier in the session, they fell to their lowest point since Feb 28 at 2,769 ringgit.
Palm oil shed 3.2% this week, its third weekly decline in four.
Traded volumes totalled 46,425 lots of 25 tonnes each on Friday.
"The market is adjusting to exports estimates and the Malaysian Palm Oil Board figures on demand," said a futures trader from Kuala Lumpur, adding that the weakness in Dalian was also a contributing factor to the market decline.
Palm oil shipments from Malaysia fell 25% in the first 10 days of March versus the corresponding period a month ago, cargo surveyor data showed.
Another trader said palm had been hit by bearish data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and on bearish sentiment from an industry conference.
U.S. soybean supplies will be bigger than expected at the end of the 2016/17 marketing year, as a record harvest in Brazil will flood the global market, cutting into demand for U.S. exports, the government said on Thursday.
Leading analysts at an industry conference on Wednesday said present price levels are unsustainable, and are seen declining to 2,500 ringgit a tonne around mid-year as production rebounds.
Malaysia's palm oil stocks at the end of February fell 5.3% from a month earlier to 1.46 million tonnes, the lowest levels in six years, industry regulator Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) said on Friday. Output levels fell 1.4% to 1.26 million tonnes.
In other related oils, soybean oil on the Chicago Board of Trade fell 0.8%, while the May soybean oil contract on the Dalian Commodity Exchange dropped 1.8%.
The May contract for palm olein on the Dalian Commodity Exchange fell 1.7%.
Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 1038 GMT
| Contract | Month | Last | Change | Low | High | Volume |
| MY PALM OIL | MAR7 | 2990 | +0.00 | 2990 | 3000 | 107 |
| MY PALM OIL | APR7 | 2848 | -64.00 | 2844 | 2882 | 1591 |
| MY PALM OIL | MAY7 | 2770 | -68.00 | 2769 | 2810 | 23715 |
| CHINA PALM OLEIN | MAY7 | 5758 | -100.00 | 5694 | 5852 | 639434 |
| CHINA SOYOIL | MAY7 | 6414 | -116.00 | 6388 | 6514 | 414058 |
| CBOT SOY OIL | MAY7 | 32.85 | -0.09 | 32.81 | 33.27 | 6372 |
| INDIA PALM OIL | MAR7 | 525.00 | -2.20 | 522.10 | 528.8 | 1749 |
| INDIA SOYOIL | MAR7 | 648 | -2.75 | 646.2 | 650.4 | 7840 |
| NYMEX CRUDE | APR7 | 49.48 | +0.20 | 49.31 | 49.80 | 99167 |
Palm oil prices in Malaysian ringgit per tonne
CBOT soy oil in U.S. cents per pound
Dalian soy oil and RBD palm olein in Chinese yuan per tonne
India soy oil in Indian rupee per 10 kg
Crude in U.S. dollars per barrel
(US$1 = 4.4490 ringgit)
(US$1 = 66.5900 Indian rupees)
(US$1 = 6.9140 Chinese yuan)