September 09, 2006	Saturday	Sha'aban 15, 1427

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 8: Malaysian crude palm oil futures closed at 1-1/2-month low on Friday, dragged down by market talk that cargo surveyors are likely to unveil lower export numbers for the first 10 days of September.

Dealers said cargo surveyor Intertek Testing Services is expected to announce on Monday palm product exports of 350,000 to 360,000 tons for Sept. 1 to 10, down from 458,949 tons shipped in the first 10 days of August.

The market has gone into further liquidation after the export numbers started floating around, said one dealer. It will go down further if August stocks are high. The state-run Malaysian Palm Oil Board will release August stock and production numbers on Monday. Cargo surveyors Societe Generale de Surveillance, whose numbers are closely tracked by the industry, will along with ITS issue Sept. 1 to 10 export figures on the same day.

The benchmark third-month November crude palm oil contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives market closed down 17 ringgit at 1,553 ringgit ($424) a ton, after trading in a range of 1,550 to 1,579 ringgit.

Other traded months finished down between two and 16 ringgit. Volumes rose to 14,532 lots of 25 tons each, more than double Thursday's 6,956 lots.

The benchmark third month contract is back to the price level of July 20, when the marked jumped 3.3 per cent to 1,591 rinngit from 1,540 ringgit after Malaysia along with Indonesia announced plans to set aside 40 per cent of their total crude palm oil output for biodiesel.

Malaysian palm oil stocks were down 1.9 per cent at the end of August from a month earlier because of a robust growth in exports and output, a Reuters poll showed on Thursday.

Palm oil output in Malaysia, the world's largest producer, is estimated to have risen 9.1 per cent to 1.5 million tons in August, according to the median estimate of five plantation houses polled by Reuters.

Exports are likely to perform equally well with an increase of 9.4 per cent to 1.35 million tons in August from 1,233,489 tons in July.

Malaysian palm oil exports have been rising in the past few months because of strong buying from traditional consumers such as China and Europe. Sales to the Middle East and Pakistan have also risen ahead of the Muslim fasting month of Ramazan.But overseas sales are not likely to show an equally impressive growth in September, plantation officials say.

We are already witnessing a slowdown, it will be difficult to maintain the same pace in September, one plantation official said from refining hub of Pasir Gudang in the southern Johor state.

In the physical crude palm oil market, sellers were quoting 1,547.50 ringgit a ton for September shipment and buyers 1,542.50 ringgit. Trades were done between 1,540 and 1,552.50 ringgit a ton.—Reuters