20121212 1748 Palm Oil Related News.

VEGOILS-Palm oil falls to one-month low on bearish USDA data
Wed Dec 12, 2012 1:11am EST
(Updates prices, adds details)
    * Prices drop to 2,233 ringgit, a level last seen on Nov. 12
    * Traders looking out for Malaysia's new crude palm oil tax
for Jan
    * Palm prices to rise soon on export demand -Oil World

    By Chew Yee Kiat
    SINGAPORE, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Malaysian palm oil futures
dropped to a one-month low on Wednesday, as forecasts for a
higher supply of rival soybean oil stoked concerns of a global
vegetable oil surplus.
    The bearish view of soybean oil from the U.S. Department of
Agriculture (USDA), coupled with Malaysia's record high palm oil
stocks in November, have put palm oil futures on track for their
steepest annual loss since 2008.
    "CBOT (Chicago Board of Trade) soyoil came down yesterday by
about 90 points, and there were some traders who were trying to
break the previous low," said a trader with a foreign
commodities brokerage in Malaysia.      
    By the midday break, the benchmark February contract
 on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange had lost 2.4
percent to 2,235 ringgit ($730) per tonne, slightly off a low at
2,233 ringgit, a level unseen since Nov. 12.
    Total traded volumes stood at 15,739 lots of 25 tonnes each,
higher than the usual 12,500 lots.
    Traders are looking out for Malaysia's new crude palm oil
export tax that will be formalised in a gazette on Dec. 17 under
a new tax structure that aims to claw back market share from top
producer Indonesia.
    Despite higher supply of global vegetable oil, the steep
discount between palm oil and soybean oil could stimulate high
export demand for palm oil and send prices rising in early 2013,
said Hamburg-based analysts Oil World.  
    Palm oil imports by India, the world's top vegetable oil
buyer, are likely to have fallen in November from October
levels, which were the highest in at least three years, as
demand shrank with the start of cold weather that solidifies the
oil, a Reuters survey showed.  
    In a bullish sign for palm oil, Brent crude held above $108
a barrel on Wednesday as OPEC reduced oil supply, although
rising output from the United States and uncertainty about its
budget for next year limited price gains.
    In other vegetable oil markets, U.S. soyoil for January
delivery fell 0.2 percent in early Asian trade, after
falling by almost 2 percent in the previous session. The most
active May 2013 soybean oil contract on the Dalian
Commodity Exchange also lost 1.5 percent.