- Last week, soybean prices climbed on logistics and transportation issues.

- Bloomberg quoted industry experts as saying that there could be railroad bottlenecks in November 2014.

- Weekly train speeds fell to the lowest last week since April 2010 while waiting times at the terminals rose to the highest since July 2010.

- Logistics issues have also pushed US soy meal prices to a high as shipping delays tightened supplies from Midwest processors. Deliveries slowed as increased loads from crude oil to grains clog rails.

- Rising meat and soymeal prices have helped boost soybean crushing margins in USA.

- Based on the latest prices, the disparity between CPO and soybean oil is currently US$65/tonne or 8.5% compared with the averages of 14.3% in the past five years and 16.7% for the month of September 2014.

- Malaysia’s Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister said that MSPO (Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil) will be implemented from 1 January 2015 onwards to enhance standards matching other certification.

- Principles and criteria under MSPO have been finalised and the field trials have been completed. MSPO would be the standard and certification for branding Malaysian palm oil.

- Currently, about 9.7mil tonnes of global palm oil are RSPO-certified (Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil).

- SGS reported that Malaysia’s palm oil exports inched down 2% in October 2014 compared with September.

- The fall in exports was mainly due to India, which bought 31.6% fewer palm oil. Palm oil exports to China rose 36.4% MoM in October while Pakistan received 72% more palm oil shipments.

- Palm oil exports to USA expanded by 44.3% in October compared with September while Europe bought 12.8% more palm oil.

Source: AmeSecurities