Highlight MPOB : Malaysia March palm oil stocks up 2% m-o-m, exports fall 8%

by **Cals** Fri 11 Apr 2014, 01:28

Highlight MPOB : Malaysia March palm oil stocks up 2% m-o-m, exports fall 8%

Business & Markets 2014

Written by Chong Jin Hun of theedgemalaysia.com

Thursday, 10 April 2014 14:14

KUALA LUMPUR (Apr 10): Malaysian crude palm oil (CPO) output rose about 17.35% to 1.5 million tonnes in March 2014 from 1.3 million tonnes in the preceding month, according to the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB).

In a statement posted on its website today, MPOB said palm oil inventory, comprising CPO and procesed palm oil, rose about 1.86% to 1.69 million tonnes from 1.66 million tonnes.

Palm oil exports, however, fell 7.98% to 1.2 million tonnes from 1.4 million tonnes.

The latest CPO output figures had beaten market forecast. Reuters reported that Malaysia likely churned out 1.39 million tonnes of CPO in March, up 9 percent from February, based on a median survey of six traders and planters polled by Reuters.

The survey pegged Malaysian stocks at 1.58 million tonnes in March, down 5 percent from February's 1.66 million tonnes.

Lacklustre demand for the tropical oil likely checked the fall in inventories, the poll showed. Malaysian exports of palm oil products in March was seen at 1.30 million tonnes, down 3.7 percent from February.

Earlier, Reuters reported that Malaysia's palm oil stocks likely dropped to a more than three-year low in March as crop-damaging dry weather continued to curb yields, but weak demand for the tropical oil prevented a steeper drawdown in inventories.

Lower stocks in Malaysia, the world's No.2 producer of palm oil after Indonesia, could lift benchmark prices that in March suffered their biggest monthly drop in over a year amid worries of lagging global demand from key consumers.