20120911 0929 Soy Oil & Palm Oil Related News.

Soybean Reserves Smallest in Four Decades After Drought (Bloomberg)
The smallest U.S. soybean harvest in nine years will leave inventories in the world’s largest exporting nation at the lowest in four decades. U.S. farmers will reap 13 percent less than a year earlier after the worst Midwest drought in 76 years, according to the average of 34 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Reserves will be the lowest since 1973 by March, estimates INTL FCStone Inc., which handled $75 billion of physical commodities in 2011. Futures will advance 16 percent to an all-time high of $20 a bushel in three months, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. predicts.
Crop prices surged to records this year as drought parched fields across the U.S., South America and Russia. The U.S. Department of Agriculture cut its forecasts the past two months and the Bloomberg survey indicates the agency will do so again tomorrow, leaving Brazil as the top soybean supplier for the first time. Feed costs are rising for meat producers including Tyson Foods Inc. (TSN), the largest in the U.S., and three United Nations agencies said Sept. 4 that swift action is needed to avert a food crisis. “The U.S. will simply run out of soybeans” for exports on March 1, said Doug Jackson, a FCStone vice president in West Des Moines, Iowa, who has been a grain-industry analyst since 1974. “The supply situation is unprecedented. The theoretical maximum South American shipping capacity may fall short, leaving world buyers wanting.”

Billionaires Bet on Palm Oil With GIC, Northstar: Southeast Asia (Bloomberg)
Triputra Agro Persada, the palm oil company owned by Indonesian billionaires Theodore Rachmat and Benny Subianto, will increase its planted area by two-thirds by 2015 as it prepares for an initial stock sale. Triputra Agro Persada has been buying plantations since it was set up in 2005 and currently owns about 300,000 hectares (740,000 acres), Chief Executive Officer Arif Rachmat said in an interview in Jakarta Sept. 7. It plans to increase its planted areas to at least 200,000 hectares from more than 120,000 hectares with the help of funding from TPG Capital’s Indonesian partner, Northstar, and Government of Singapore Investment Corp. An initial public offering is planned for in three to five years, Rachmat said. “We will do it at the most optimum time. It’s hard to say where commodity prices will be.”
TPG’s Indonesian partner, Northstar, and the Singapore sovereign wealth fund invested $200 million for a “small minority stake” in Triputra Agro Persada in August and have the option of investing an additional $50 million in the next few months, the 37-year-old son of Theodore Rachmat said. That’s the biggest private-equity investment in Southeast Asia’s largest economy this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The benchmark palm oil price in Malaysia, the second- largest producer, has dropped 7.5 percent this year through Sept. 10 as a slowdown in China and Europe cut consumption. Global demand for the tropical commodity used in everything from candy to lipstick, is set to “grow strongly” because of its increasing use in bio-diesel and electricity production, according to a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP this year.

Pro Farmer: After the Bell Soybean Recap (CME)
Soybean futures saw a choppy day of trade, but weakened into the close to post double-digit losses in the mid to upper teens. The onset of harvest in the U.S. and favorable weather for soybean planting in Brazil provided pressure in the bean market today, although selling was limited as traders are evening positions ahead of Wednesday's key USDA reports.

Soybean Complex Market Recap (CME)
November Soybeans finished down 17 3/4 at 1718 3/4, 25 1/2 off the high and 2 3/4 up from the low. January Soybeans closed down 17 1/2 at 1718 1/4. This was 1 1/2 up from the low and 24 3/4 off the high. December Soymeal closed down 7.5 at 519.4. This was 0.9 up from the low and 9.9 off the high. December Soybean Oil finished down 0.1 at 56.56, 0.5 off the high and 0.34 up from the low. November soybeans traded sharply lower on the day and losses were extended to Soybean oil and soybean meal. Soybean futures saw a boost in early trade on a better than expected export forecast for Malaysian Palm Oil. However, gains were limited after the Malaysian Palm Oil Board estimated a 5.8% increase in August palm oil stocks from the month prior. Chinese August soy imports were reported at 4.42 million tonnes vs. 5.87 in July, which is a 6 month low. While the sharp decline in imports is considered slightly bearish, a pullback was likely expected at some point after reaching a 25 month high in July. Thoughts that the market is expecting a soybean yield near 35.7 bushels per acre and production near 2.66 billion bushels on this week's USDA report which is down about 35 million bushels from last month is supportive to price action. Export inspections for the week ending September 6th were pegged at 12.9 million bushels which was slightly below trade estimates of 13-17 million bushels. Inspections needed each week to meet the current USDA forecast for the 2012/13 crop year is 21.34 million bushels. Inspections offered limited direction to prices today as traders reposition ahead of Wednesday's crop report.

China imported 4.42 mln tonnes of soy in August – Customs (Reuters)
China, the world's largest soy buyer, imported 4.42 million tonnes of soybeans in August, down 24.7 percent from 5.87 million tonnes in July, figures from the General Administration of Customs of China showed.
Imports of vegetable oils in August were 640,000 tonnes, down 12.3 percent from the previous month.

EDIBLES: Malaysian crude palm oil futures inched lower on expectations of rising inventory levels, although losses were limited by a jump in exports that could help ease pressure, eating into high stock levels that have risen above 2 million tonnes. (Reuters)