- Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) has released the country’s palm oil statistics for November 2014. Palm oil inventory in Malaysia rose 5.2% from 2.17mil tonnes in October to 2.28mil tonnes in November. This was within consensus estimates of 2.29mil tonnes.

- Declines in palm oil exports and domestic disappearance led to the 5.2% MoM increase in palm oil inventory in November.

- Domestic disappearance of palm oil slid from 204,980 tonnes in October to 125,770 tonnes in November. In the 11 months through November, domestic disappearance amounted to 2.26mil tonnes, which is almost 11.5% of the full year’s estimated CPO production of 19.5mil to 19.8mil tonnes.

- Average price discount between soybean oil and palm oil narrowed marginally from 13.5% in October to 11.9% in November. From January to November 2014, the average price disparity between the two commodities was at 9.4% compared with 18.5% in 2013. Year-to-date, the average CPO price is at RM2,427/tonne versus the average of RM2,367/tonne in 2013.

- CPO production contracted in November - for the third month this year - in line with seasonal trends. Also, the lag impact from the dry weather in 1Q2014 continued to affect FFB yields in Peninsular Malaysia in November. CPO production shrank 7.5% MoM to 1.75mil tonnes in November.

- Peninsular Malaysia recorded a MoM decline of 10.3% in palm oil production in November while CPO production in Sabah edged down by 0.7%. Sarawak’s CPO production fell by 10.9% from 348,023 tonnes in October to 310,060 tonnes in November. Peninsular Malaysia accounted for 49.8% of the country’s palm oil production in November. This was followed by Sabah (32.5%) and Sarawak (17.7%).

- Inventory of palm oil in crude form expanded 9.1% MoM from 1.2mil tonnes in October to 1.3mil tonnes in November while the stockpile of processed palm oil was relatively flat. Sabah recorded a 12.2% MoM increase in inventory of crude palm oil in November while Sarawak’s crude palm oil inventory shrank by 13.2%. Inventory of crude palm oil in Peninsular Malaysia climbed 12.3% from 558,291 tonnes in October to 626,902 tonnes in November.

- Palm oil exports contracted by 6.1% MoM to 1.5mil tonnes in November as US’s and Pakistan’s demand fell by 40.3% and 42%, respectively. Exports to India improved by 2.5% MoM to 285,170 tonnes in November while China’s buying increased for the third month in a row. Exports of Malaysian palm oil fell by 5.2% YoY in the 11 months through November as shipments to China plunged by 22.6%.

- India has overtaken China as the largest buyer of Malaysian palm oil this year, accounting for 18.2% of exports. China accounted for 16.4% of Malaysia’s palm oil exports from January to November 2014.

- Biodiesel exports improved from 1,642 tonnes in October to 22,753 tonnes in November. Biodiesel exports amounted to 66,798 tonnes in the 11-month period compared with 171,795 tonnes in the same period last year.

Source: AmeSecurities