KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 12: Malaysian palm oil futures were flat in late trade on Monday, unsure over which direction to take after cargo surveyor SGS released disappointing exports data, traders said.

The benchmark third-month October contract ended down three ringgit at 1,453 ringgit ($382.37) a ton. Overall volume was slow at 1,427 lots.

Societe Generale de Surveillance (SGS) said Malaysian palm oil exports for August 1-10 stood at 248,592 tons, slightly up from 230,693 tons for July 1-10. However, dealers had expected exports to reach between 260,000 and 280,000 tons.

The SGS said China was the biggest buyer of Malaysian palm oil for August 1-10, taking 45,601 tons, followed by India, which bought 43,660 tonnes and Egypt with 14,725 tons.

Some traders said many players were on the sidelines ahead of the release of a US Department of Agriculture production report due on Monday.

An average of analysts’ estimates put the 2002 US soy crop at 2.722 billion bushels, below the USDA’s forecast in early July for 2.860 billion and last year’s crop of 2.891 billion bushels.—Reuters