* Shortened trading ahead of public holiday
* Expectations of higher output in August and September
* Indonesia to start imposing export levies on Thursday
By Manolo Serapio Jr
MANILA, July 16 (Reuters) – Malaysian palm oil futures
dropped to a one-week low in shortened trading on Thursday,
pressured by poor demand and expectations of increased output
over the next two months.
The market only traded half-day and will be closed on Friday
for the Eid al-Fitr holiday that marks the end of the Muslim
fasting month. Trading resumes on Monday.
“Palm oil is being driven lower by falling demand and
expectations of higher output in August and September together
with funds liquidating positions in grains on CBOT (Chicago
Board of Trade),” said a Kuala Lumpur-based palm oil broker.
Palm oil for October delivery on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives
fell to as much as 2,173 ringgit ($ 570) a tonne, lowest since
July 9, before trimming losses to close 0.3 percent lower at
2,190 ringgit.
Indonesia, the world’s top producer of palm oil, has said it
will begin imposing levies on exports on Thursday in a bid to
boost government coffers.
Indonesian exporters will be required to pay $ 50 per tonne
for crude palm oil and $ 30 for processed palm oil products
shipments when the export tax is cut to zero – which happens
when a reference price drops below $ 750 a tonne.
The implementation comes after weeks of delay, limiting any
impact on palm oil futures in No. 2 producer Malaysia, analysts
say.
Elsewhere, the most-active soybean oil contract on the
Dalian Commodity Exchange fell 1 percent, and U.S.
August soyoil gained 0.4 percent.
Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 0517 GMT
Contract Month Last Change Low High Volume
MY PALM OIL AUG5 2188 -6.00 2188 2196 209
MY PALM OIL SEP5 2190 -3.00 2172 2198 5640
MY PALM OIL OCT5 2190 -6.00 2173 2199 6955
CHINA PALM OLEIN JAN6 4878 -60.00 4816 4916 469928
CHINA SOYOIL JAN6 5664 -56.00 5602 5688 440986
CBOT SOY OIL DEC5 32.17 +0.90 32.04 32.20 3352
INDIA PALM OIL JUL5 430.20 +0.90 429.60 431.70 67
INDIA SOYOIL AUG5 578.20 +1.85 577.30 579.10 5895
NYMEX CRUDE AUG5 51.87 +0.46 50.91 52.57 12723
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
($ 1 = 3.8060 Malaysian ringgit)
(Additional reporting by Naveen Thukral in Singapore; Editing
by Himani Sarkar)
