Business Times
Monday, September 29, 2008

By W. Q. Mun
OBSERVATIONS: As with most world equity and commodity markets, the Kuala Lumpur CPO futures market jumped at first on news of the Bush administration’s announcement of a US$700 billion (US$1 = RM3.43) rescue plan for the US financial sector.

Reacting to news of the US rescue plan and the jump in US soyabean oil futures, Kuala Lumpur CPO futures market players bidded the actively-traded December 2008 contract up in early trade to an intra-week high of RM2,404. However the local market fell back in the latter part of last week in tandem with other world markets as buying euphoria started fading on news of opposition to the
Bush administration’s proposed rescue package.

The December 2008 contract closed last Friday at RM2,313, still up RM54 or 2.39 per cent for the week.

This market’s pullback in the latter part…

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The Star
Monday September 29, 2008
by G.M. Teoh

CRUDE palm oil (CPO) futures on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives tested their three-week peak in an early rally last week and then reversed direction on technical and fresh selling pressure before settling with moderate gains.

The initial strength was boosted by the sharply higher Chicago Board of Trade soyoil futures and the rebound in crude oil prices. The subsequent pullback in soyoil prices and the weaker sentiment in China’s soyoil market prompted profit-taking selling in CPO and forced the market to return almost all earlier gains.

Sharply lower palm oil exports for Sept 1—25 also encouraged active long-liquidation and speculative selling toward late week.

Societe Generale de Surveillance (SGS) pegged exports for Sept 1—25 sharply lower by 12.9% at 990,686 tonnes from 1.136 million a month earlier.

The December futures prices jumped from an early sell-off low of RM2,200 and made a…

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Fundamental Analysis

MCX CPO futures closed lower on account of better stock of Malaysian and Indonesian palm oil. Higher production estimates of soybean also added bearish market sentiments.

According to SGS, palm oil exports in the first 25 days of September declined by around 12.9% to 990,686 tonnes in comparison with the same period in August. Exports are below market expectation of 1.006 million tons.

18,000 tonnes of crude palm oil is expected to arrive at Kandla port and 28964 metric tonnes of palm oil at Kakinada during this week.

MMTC Ltd. has floated a tender to import11000 metric tonnes of crude palm oil. It is also seeking to import 7,500 metric tonnes of RBD palmolein.

Technical Analysis

CPO Prices (MCX Sep Contract) closed lower at 349.40 on Saturday; from its high of the day (350.90) and touched a low of 347.

Prices closed above…

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Monday, September 29, 2008
A special team of the health department, on the directives of Sindh Health Minister Dr Saghir Ahmed, visited the Port Qasim Authority (PQA) on Sunday and took samples of hazardous palm oil for laboratory tests.

The team, headed by Special Health Secretary Dr Capt. Abdul Majid, took the samples of ten-year-old substandard palm oil, stated to be hazardous for health by a court. The oil samples were taken in the presence of print and electronic media personnel besides officials of customs, HEJ, PCSIR and the city government, and sent for laboratory tests.

Dr Capt. Majid also seized tankers of the controversial palm oil. These tankers had earlier detained at the PQA by custom officials.

Meanwhile, Sindh Health Minister Dr Saghir Ahmed said that the results of the laboratory tests of these samples would be made public in the presence of the media.

It may be noted…

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By SYED JAFAR ASKARI

KARACHI - The government has yet to specify the standard of the disputed RBD palm oil as chemical experts have once again suspected it authenticity of its samples collected from IFFCO Refinery from where it was seized and dumped nine years ago.

The experts also suspected that 1,000 metric tons of RBD palm oil, has been replaced with new one, because there are no considerable chemical and biochemical changes in the oil when it was dumped in 1998 at the said place.

Following the directives of the apex courts, the chemical experts from HEJ Research Institute of Chemistry, Karachi University, PCSIR Laboratory and CDGK Food Laboratory on Saturday collected the oil samples from IFFCO Refinery in the presence of journalists, customs officials, Special Health Secretary Dr Abdul Majid and Deputy Health Secretary Dr Jamal Sheikh to conduct further chemical analysis. Prof Dr Khalid M…

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By Manik Mehta

NEW YORK, Sept 27 (Bernama) — The American Palm Oil Council (APOC) announced that a Malaysian oil palm plantation has received the first ever certification as the first plantation to adopt the strictest standards of sustainability for its palm-oil production.

A US based association representing the Malaysian palm-oil industry, APOC was set up to inform the American public about the benefits of palm oil used in food applications, biofuel, soaps, candles, etc, and is also said to be the worlds only international association formed to codify sustainable industry practices

“Palm-oil producers in Malaysia, along with the Malaysian government are committed to preserving the countrys natural resources and biodiversity,” said Mohd Salleh Kassim, the APOC executive director.

“We want our customers here in the US to know that palm oil purchased in Malaysia is produced in a responsible, environmentally-friendly manner … the announcement is a great step…

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Business Times
Friday - September 26, 2008
CPO FUTURES

Malaysian crude palm oil futures fell 1.6 per cent yesterday as investors took profits on weaker crude oil and dismal export numbers from cargo surveyors.

Prices of the tropical oil have fallen around 25 per cent this year, dragged down by bumper harvests, defaults by Asian consumers and rival Indonesia cutting its export taxes amid roiling financial markets.

The most-active December contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange settled down RM38 to RM2,280(US$665) after hitting an intraday low of RM2,259.

“The physical market is more brisk with some short-covering ahead of the long holidays next week but in the futures market, traders want to square positions because the outlook is uncertain,” said a trader with a local commodities broker.

The predominately Muslim country will celebrate Eid al-Fitr on Tuesday or Wednesday to mark the end of the fasting month of Ramadan. All financial…

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JAYAPURA, Sept 25 (Bernama) — A number of Malaysian joint ventures recently sent their experts to Nabire in the eastern Indonesian province of Papua, to study the potentials of the region for development of oil-palm plantations.

The chairman of the Nabire district legislative assembly, Daniel Butu, confirmed here on Wednesday that the investors planned to develop a large-scale plantation.

Quoting Antara news agency, the experts have also come to study the possibility of setting up a factory in the region to process crude palmoil into finished products.

Butu said the district assembly members welcomed the plan hoping that it would create employment and opportunities for the people in the region to improve their welfare.

He said no memorandum of understanding had been signed so far because the results of the study still had yet to be presented to the district head and the assembly.

“The distric legislative assembly supports any…

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Business Times
Thursday - September 25, 2008
CPO FUTURES

Malaysian crude palm oil futures rose 0.6 per cent yesterday as oil headed above US$108 a barrel, lending support to some global vegetable oil markets but lingering anxieties of cooling demand cut into gains.

Malaysian benchmark prices of the tropical oil have fallen more than 25 per cent so far this year, dragged down by bumper harvests, defaults by Asian consumers and rival Indonesia cutting down export taxes at a time of financial market turmoil.

“Its a game in the market. Buy and sell on the ebbs and flows of crude oil but there is a sense that export data today will not be very ideal,” said a trader with a local commodities broker.

The most-active December contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange settled up RM13 at RM2,318 (US$678) a tonne after going as high as RM2,357.

Other traded months ranged between…

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Business Times
Wednesday - September 24, 2008
CPO FUTURES

Malaysian crude palm oil futures fell as much 2.9 per cent yesterday, erasing some of the week’s gains as weaker crude oil prices spilled over to vegetable oil amid fears of slowing overseas demand.

The vegetable oil is now trading at less than half of its record levels, battered by bumper harvests, defaults by Asian consumers and financial market turmoil.
The benchmark December contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange settled down RM39 at RM2,305 (US$676) per tonne after falling to an inter-session low of RM2,277.

In the midday session, the contract rose RM2,404, a level not seen since September 9.

“The market was in for a correction given the moves in crude oil,” said a trader with a local commodities brokerage.

“Export prospects look bad but we are not out of the bullish phase as production this month looks weaker.”
Some traders…

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