Malaysian palm oil inventories surprised to the upside in December, rising to 3.22 million mt, against market estimates of 3.1 million mt, data released by the Malaysian Palm Oil Board on Thursday showed.
Malaysia imported more CPO from Indonesia than expected, said CIMB Bank's head of agribusiness Ivy Ng, while CPO exports from Malaysia to other destinations were lower than market expectations. Malaysia imported 108,000 mt of palm in December against a CIMB estimate of 60,000mt, she said.
The higher inventory number for December was bearish for palm oil in the short term, a market trader said. CPO front-month futures on Bursa Malaysia fell to MR2,079/mt ($507.57/mt) Thursday from MR2,116/mt Wednesday.
CPO production in December fell 2.02% month on month to 1.81 million mt, the data showed, as seasonal low production set in.
December exports of palm oil rose just 0.57% month on month to 1.38 million mt.
PME exports continued at a healthy trot in December, rising 61.74% month on month to 71,314 mts. In 2018, Malaysian PME producers exported 59,586 mt of PME to European and Asian markets, more than double the 235,276 mt exported in 2017.
