June 21, 2006	Wednesday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 24, 1427

KUALA LUMPUR, June 20: Malaysian crude palm oil futures closed slightly lower on Tuesday after cargo surveyor SGS reported a slight drop in palm oil shipments for June 1-20, traders said.

The benchmark third-month September contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives exchange was down three ringgit at 1,451 ringgit ($396) a ton.

Other traded months were one to five ringgit lower. Overall volume was 6,144 lots of 25 tons each.

Cargo surveyor Societe General de Surveillance (SGS) said exports of Malaysian oil palm products for June 1-20 fell 0.7 per cent to 658,072 tons from the 662,404 shipped in May 1-20.

Earlier. shipping surveyor ITS put exports up 6.7 per cent at 677,793 tons.

Soyabean futures at the Chicago Board of Trade closed lower on Monday due to good crop weather. July soyaoil was down 0.66 cent at 24.20 cents per lb.

In Tuesday's electronic trading during Asian hours, the July contract had inched up 0.03 cent at 24.23 cents per lb by 1037 GMT.

In physicals, June crude palm oil was bid at 1,395 a ringgit a ton in the southern region, against offers of 1,400 ringgit.

Trades were done at 1,390-1,395 ringgit.—Reuters