November 14, 2001	Wednesday	Shaba’an 27, 1422

KARACHI, Nov 13: Pakistani palm oil prices continued higher this week on strong domestic demand ahead of of Ramazan, while dealers said on Tuesday that the market had room for further imports.

“There is buying in the market as the demand is still there which has pushed up the prices,” a leading palm oil importer in Karachi said.

Dealers said increased demand was mainly due to the traditional peak season for Ramazan, expected to start by the end of this week.

They said that most imports to meet Ramazan demand had already been placed, but further deals could be agreed to cover future positions.

“Buying for the Ramazan demand has already taken place...any fresh buying would come after Ramazan,” the importer said.

Cargo Surveyor Societe Generale de Surveillance (SGS) on Monday said Malaysian palm oil exports totalled around 383,871 tons in the first 10 days of November, up from 257,879 tons for the first 10 days of October.

SGS said China was the biggest buyer of Malaysian palm oil for November 1-10, taking 50,483 tons, followed by India, which bought 42,850 tons and Pakistan with 36,650 tons.

“We estimate that another 40,000 to 50,000 tons of additional import orders will be placed during the rest of November,” another dealer said.

The Malaysian palm oil futures market relinquished the previous day’s gains as some players booked profit ahead of a religious holiday, traders said.

Dealers quoted palm oil on the local market on Tuesday at Rs1,440 ($23.51) per maund (37.32 kg), up Rs75 from the previous week’s level of Rs1,365 per maund.

Pakistan annually imports about 1.3 million tons of edible oil products, led by palm oil, mostly from Malaysia, to meet domestic demand of 1.9 million tons.—Reuters