FCPO Related News (Fri, Aug 16)

[Malaysia August 1-15 Palm Oil Exports 644,589 Tons,  Up 17.7% on Month –ITS]

[Malaysia August 1-15 Palm Oil Exports 636,466 Tons,  Up 18% on Month –SGS]

Malaysian palm oil futures rose on Thursday to their highest in more than a month, boosted by strong exports from the world’s second-largest producer, as major buyer China stocks up ahead of the Mid-Autumn festival in September. Exports of Malaysian palm oil products from Aug. 1 to 15 rose 17.7 percent to 644,589 tonnes from the 547,857 tonnes shipped from July 1 to 15, cargo surveyor Intertek Testing Services said on Thursday. "The palm market's stronger today mostly due to good exports in the first 15 days ... We are in a price range now where immediate support is at 2,280 ringgit and resistance at 2,340 ringgit," said a trader with a foreign commodities brokerage in Kuala Lumpur.

By the midday break, the benchmark October contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange had gained 1 percent to 2,313 ringgit ($706) per tonne. Prices earlier touched 2,318 ringgit, a level not seen since July 12. Total traded volume stood at 17,048 lots of 25 tonnes each, higher than the usual 12,500 lots. A bullish target range on technical charts of 2,348-2,356 ringgit per tonne remains unchanged, as indicated by its wave pattern and a Fibonacci ratio analysis, said Reuters analyst Wang Tao. Malaysia's July palm oil end-stocks unexpectedly rose for the first time this year on a surge in production of the tropical oil.

Data from the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) on Wednesday showed inventories rose 1 percent in July to 1.66 million tonnes, marking the first rise since December, against market estimates that stocks had dropped 3 percent. But analysts said a surge in local consumption, indicated by the MPOB stocks data, showed that palm oil demand remained healthy. "Despite the strong surge in production, stockpiles only rose by 1 percent ... due to a sharp increase in local palm oil consumption to a record high of 289,900 tonnes," Malaysia's RHB Investment Bank said in a research note on Thursday. "Part of the surge was due to near-record biodiesel exports, but, more importantly, the conversion of crude palm oil to biodiesel for local consumption."

In other markets, Brent crude prices climbed towards $111 per barrel on Thursday, extending gains from the previous session on a drop in U.S. oil inventories and worries over supplies from the Middle East and North Africa. In vegetable oil markets, the U.S. soyoil contract for December gained 0.5 percent in early Asian trade. The most-active January soybean oil contract on the Dalian Commodities Exchange climbed 0.3 percent.         [Reuters]