VEGOILS-Palm records biggest daily drop in 16 mths after crude hits 5-yr lows
* Oil hits five-year low after OPEC decision on output
* Malaysian exports down 9.8-10.5 pct in November -cargo surveyors
* Decline may continue as weak ringgit fails to support -trader
(Updates prices, adds SGS export data)
By Fergus Jensen
JAKARTA, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Malaysian palm oil futures recorded its biggest
daily decline since July 2013 on Monday as crude oil hit five-year lows and
export data showed weakening global demand for palm oil.
"Everything dropped today on the back of weak crude oil, poor export
figures, weak bean oil and also the weak Dalian - basically everything is weak,"
said a trader with a foreign commodities brokerage in Kuala Lumpur.
Weak crude oil dents palm oil demand by making it less appealing for
blending into biofuels.
The benchmark February contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives
Exchange fell as much as 4.1 percent to 2,083 ringgit in early trade, their
lowest since Sept. 22.
Prices then closed at 2,109 ringgit ($615) per tonne, down 2.9 percent,
recording the contract's steepest daily fall since July 12, 2013.
Total traded volume stood at 59,556 lots of 25 tonnes, much higher than the
average 35,000 lots.
Brent crude oil fell more than $2 a barrel to a five-year low below
$68 on Monday, as investors looked for a price floor after last week's OPEC
decision not to cut production.
Both U.S. crude and Brent have fallen for five straight months, oil's
longest losing streak since the 2008 financial crisis.
On Friday leading industry analyst James Fry told a palm oil meeting that
Malaysian palm oil may drop to 1,985 ringgit if Brent is at $70 a barrel, and
could slide to 1,740 ringgit if Brent falls to $60.
In competing vegetable oil markets, the U.S. soyoil contract for December
was down 1.7 percent in late Asian trade, while the most active May
soybean oil contract on the Dalian Commodities Exchange plunged 4.0
percent.
Cargo surveyor Intertek Testing Services said on Monday that exports of
Malaysian palm oil products in November fell 9.8 percent from October to
1,324,124 tonnes shipped.
Another surveyor Societe Generale de Surveillance reported exports fell 10.5
percent from a month ago due to weaker demand to India, Pakistan and Europe.
Palm prices could continue to fall while fundamentals remain weak, the
trader said, noting that steep declines in the ringgit since late last week had
failed to attract buyers.
"Today the ringgit is very weak but it is not helping. Despite the cheaper
(palm oil) price, there is also no demand," he said. "Because of the external
factors, people are in no hurry to stock up."
The Malaysian currency was set to suffer its biggest two-day slide
since the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis, slipping as far as 3.4375 per dollar
as data highlighted the economic toll of plunging oil prices.
Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 1035 GMT
Contract Month Last Change Low High Volume
MY PALM OIL DEC4 2110 -37.00 2088 2125 134
MY PALM OIL JAN5 2119 -55.00 2090 2132 2672
MY PALM OIL FEB5 2109 -63.00 2083 2130 33479
CHINA PALM OLEIN MAY5 5042 -210.00 5042 5218 919968
CHINA SOYOIL MAY5 5570 -232.00 5570 5650 346956
CBOT SOY OIL JAN5 31.84 -6.00 31.55 32.20 15423
INDIA PALM OIL DEC4 433.20 -6.00 427.00 437.40 1031
INDIA SOYOIL DEC4 573.95 -2.85 569.50 574.00 23615
NYMEX CRUDE JAN5 65.73 -0.42 63.72 66.18 96746
Palm oil prices in Malaysian ringgit per tonne
CBOT soy oil in U.S. cents per pound
Dalian soy oil and RBD palm olein in Chinese yuan per tonne
India soy oil in Indian rupee per 10 kg
Crude in U.S. dollars per barrel
($1 = 3.432 Malaysian ringgit)
($1 = 6.1520 Chinese yuan)
($1 = 62.06 Indian rupee)
(Additional reporting by Anuradha Raghu in KUALA LUMPUR,; Editing by Alan
Raybould and Susan Thomas)