KUALA LUMPUR, (Bernama) — Crude palm oil (CPO) futures prices on Bursa Malaysia Derivatives ended higher Tuesday on expectations of strong demand for biodiesel amid rising crude oil prices, dealers said.
Crude oil prices touched an all-time high of US$87.96 per barrel today.
“As oil prices go up, the alternative would be crude palm oil which is used for biodiesel and this means increased demand for the commodity,” a dealer said.
He said that strong export growth and lower output in production also reinforced the market.
“Malaysia’s palm oil exports are expected to remain robust and this is likely to push the CPO prices to above the RM2,600 level,” he added.
The local palm oil exports for Oct 1-15 were up 6.4 percent to 671,741 metric tonnes from 631,096 tonnes in the same period in September, he said, adding that this proves that exports still remain healthy.
The market was closed yesterday for the Hari Raya holiday.
At close, CPO futures for Nov ‘07 contract rose RM69 to settle at RM2,845 per tonne and Dec ‘07 surged RM64 to RM2,795.
Jan ‘08 increased RM49 to settle at RM2,767 per tonne and Feb ‘08 went up RM41 to settle at RM2,750.
The day’s volume stood at 17,252 lots, up from last Friday’s 14,785 lots, while open interest rose to 50,629 contracts from 49,328 contracts previously.
On the physical market, October South was higher at RM2,860 compared with RM2,800 per tonne recorded last Friday.
Crude palm kernel oil futures were not traded.
– BERNAMA