20121205 1437 Palm Oil Related News.

VEGOILS-Palm oil futures off 3-week low on exports, output data
Wed Dec 5, 2012 12:49am EST
* Traders looking more at Dec palm oil export trend
    * Output set to seasonally decline
    * Palm oil firms looking to finish crude palm oil export
quotas

 (adds details, comments)
    By Niluksi Koswanage
    KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Malaysian palm oil futures
rebounded slightly on Wednesday after hitting a three-week low
the previous day as traders expected higher exports this month
and slowing output to eat into stocks that likely hit a record
high last month.
    Traders are counting on demand to kick in as forward palm
oil futures are at a discount to the 3-month benchmark. Palm oil
is also trading at a $350 discount to competing soyoil.
    More orders are expected come in from China, the world's
No.2 edible oil buyer, before the government imposes stricter
quality rules on palm oil cargoes from Jan. 2013.
    Higher exports could support palm oil futures that have lost
nearly 28 percent this year -- their worst annual performance
since the 2008 financial crisis.
    "Record stocks are a given, so I prefer to look at the
export trend in December and production in Malaysia seasonally
slowing down. I think the market is close to bottoming out,"
said the trader with a foreign commodities brokerage in Kuala
Lumpur.
    By the midday close, benchmark February contract on
the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange rose 0.3 percent to
2,301 ringgit ($760) per tonne. The previous day, the contract
fell to 2,279, the lowest since Nov. 12.
    Total traded volumes rose to 13,590 lots of 25 tonnes each,
a tad higher compared to the usual 12,500 lots.
    Reuters market analyst Wang Tao kept a bearish target of
2,200 ringgit per tonne as there was no indication on a possible
bullish reversal on this trend.
    Malaysian crude palm oil shipments are expected to rise in
the next few weeks as planters rush to finish their annual tax
free export quota allocation totalling 3.5 million tonnes and
which is set to expire end-December.
    Palm oil futures got a little support from buoyant Asian
financial markets on Wednesday, after China's new Communist
Party chief Xi Jinping said the government aimed to make its
policies more targeted and effective.
    These comments just about offset concerns over whether U.S.
lawmakers can break a budget impasse before year-end to avert a
possible economic slump.
    The U.S. fiscal crisis weighed on Brent crude despite supply
fears fanned by brewing Middle East tension. The front-month
contract was steady around $110 a barrel.
    In palm oil's competing markets, U.S. soyoil for December
delivery edged up 0.6 percent as traders grew concerned
that unfriendly crop weather would cut global soy supplies. The
most active May 2013 soybean oil contract on the Dalian
Commodity Exchange also rose 0.6 percent.