RTRS:VEGOILS-Palm oil ends flat, but posts 3rd weekly drop
* Prices fall 2.8 pct this week, posts third weekly loss
* India seen cutting back palm imports in favour of soft
oils
* Indonesia hikes April palm export tax to 13.5 pct
* Cargo surveyor data for full month exports due Monday
By Anuradha Raghu
KUALA LUMPUR, March 28 (Reuters) - Malaysian palm oil
futures ended nearly flat on Friday, reversing gains earlier in
the session to hover at six-week lows, as investor uncertainty
about lacklustre demand for the tropical oil dragged prices to
their third straight weekly loss.
Malaysian palm prices have fallen 2.8 percent this week,
pulling March prices down more than 5 percent - their biggest
fall since February 2013.
Market players are anticipating Malaysia's palm oil exports
for March to be weaker than a month ago as major consumers trim
back purchases.
"The market is still expecting a lower full-month number
(for March)," said a trader with a foreign commodities
brokerage. Malaysia exported 1.35 million tonnes of palm oil in
February, data from the Malaysian Palm Oil Board show, slightly
below January's 1.37 million tonnes.
The benchmark June contract on the Bursa Malaysia
Derivatives Exchange closed at 2,653 ringgit ($811) per tonne on
Friday, little changed from the previous session.
Prices, however, were choppy and earlier slipped to 2,643
ringgit, their lowest since Feb. 13, before pulling up.
Total traded volume stood at 42,148 lots of 25 tonnes, above
the average 35,000 lots.
Top analysts and industry officials have cautioned that
India, the world's largest edible oil importer, would cut back
on palm this year in favour of other cheaper edible oils.
An official with Ruchi Soya Industries Ltd, one of
India's biggest edible oil buyers, told Reuters that "palm
imports would drop significantly to around 7.4 million tonnes
from 8.17 million tonnes last year due to price spreads in
favour of soft oils".
Dry weather across Southeast Asia had hindered yields of
fresh fruit and tightened supplies of crude palm oil in major
producers Malaysia and Indonesia, driving up benchmark prices to
as high as 2,916 ringgit early March.
Prices could soar to as high as 3,500 ringgit if the
crop-damaging weather phenomenon El Nino returns in the second
half of 2014, analysts said, potentially turning buyers to rival
vegetable oils.
Indonesia, the world's top producer of palm oil, hiked its
export tax for crude palm oil to 13.5 percent in April from 10.5
percent in March, a ministry official said. Malaysia, the No.2
producer, has set its own export duty at a more competitive 5.5
percent.
In other markets, Brent steadied below $108 per barrel on
Friday, holding most of its gains from the prior session and
heading for the first weekly rise in five, on promising U.S.
data and fears geopolitical tensions could dent supply from
Russia.
In other competing vegetable oil markets, the U.S. soyoil
contract for May rose 0.6 percent in late Asian trade.
The most active September soybean oil contract on the
Dalian Commodities Exchange was nearly flat.
Palm, soy and crude oil prices at 1018 GMT
Contract Month Last Change Low High Volume
MY PALM OIL APR4 2708 -25.00 2706 2733 223
MY PALM OIL MAY4 2673 +1.00 2660 2703 5079
MY PALM OIL JUN4 2653 -1.00 2643 2676 22167
CHINA PALM OLEIN SEP4 6182 -16.00 6162 6222 486642
CHINA SOYOIL SEP4 6926 -2.00 6896 6952 517786
CBOT SOY OIL MAY4 40.68 +0.25 40.44 40.90 7548
NYMEX CRUDE MAY4 101.79 +0.51 101.18 101.88 12727
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
Crude in U.S. dollars per barrel
