JAKARTA, Sept 9: Malaysian crude palm oil futures fell nearly 5 per cent on Tuesday to the lowest level in more than a year, rattled by weaker crude oil and comments from leading industry analysts, dealers said.

The price of palm oil, used in products from soaps to biodiesel, has dropped 22.82 per cent since the start of the year, wiping out earlier gains, due to faltering crude oil and concerns about high stocks.

The benchmark November crude palm oil contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange ended down 115 ringgit or 4.66 per cent at 2,354 ringgit a ton after trading as low as 2,346 ringgit a ton, a level not seen since August 21, 2007.

Crude oil and soyaoil are falling, which put a lot of weight on palm oil, a dealer at a foreign brokerage firm said.

Contracts for other traded months fell between 73 and 150 ringgit.

Oil prices fell to a new five-month low on Tuesday, pressured by a rise in the US dollar and expectations that Opec will not cut output when it meets later in the day.

US crude for October delivery was down $1.39 a barrel at $104.95 after briefly falling more than $2 to touch a new five-month low of $104.23.

Comments from James Fry, a leading industry analyst based in London, also pushed the market down further.

The price of Malaysian crude palm oil is expected to hover around $700 per ton during the next six months and will find support around 2,300 ringgit because of the biofuels demand, Fry told Reuters on Tuesday. Dealers said that traders were also waiting for a slew of key data on exports, production and stocks tomorrow.

The Malaysian Palm Oil Board is due to release August’s palm oil stocks, exports and production data on September 10.

Cargo surveyors Intertek Testing Service and Societe Generale de Surveillance will also release export figures for the first 10 days in September.

Most active December soyaoil contracts at the Chicago Board of Trade declined 0.94 cents to 48.30 cents per lb during Asian trade on Tuesday.—Reuters