Palm Oil Futures Gain for Sixth Day as December Exports Climb

Jan. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Palm oil futures in Kuala Lumpur rose a sixth day after Malaysian exports advanced last month, likely lowering record stockpiles.

Shipments from Malaysia, the second-largest producer of the vegetable oil, climbed 25 percent to 1.65 million metric tons in December from November, surveyor Intertek said Jan. 2. It was the largest gain in three months.

“Inventories are being cleared as exports are strong, and this is supportive of prices,” said Ben Santoso, a plantation analyst at DBS Vickers Securities in Singapore, by phone today.

March-delivery palm oil rose as much as 3.2 percent to 1,795 ringgit ($516) a metric ton on the Malaysia Derivatives Exchange in Kuala Lumpur. It paused at 1,780 ringgit a ton at the 12:30 p.m. trading break.

India, the second-largest user of palm oil, may increase imports because it’s cheaper to import the commodity duty-free compared with rival soybean oil with a 20 percent customs tax, Santoso said.

The nation bought 519,032 tons of cooking oil in November, 49 percent more from a year earlier, the Solvent Extractors’ Association said last month. Crude palm oil imports gained 16 percent to 363,578 tons, and purchases of refined, bleached and deodorized (RBD) palmolein totaled 137,959 tons, up from 30,014 tons a year earlier.

India relies on imports to meet almost half its edible-oil demand. Most of it is palm oil from Indonesia and Malaysia, and the rest is soybean oil imported from Argentina and Brazil.

Palm oil stockpiles in Malaysia climbed to a record 2.27 million tons in November, according to the Malaysian Palm Oil Board. December numbers are due next week.