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Palm oil prices set for a "year of two halves", biodiesel demand eyed - Reuters Thursday, 5 March 2015; The bullish short-term outlook drove up palm futures to an almost eight-month top of 2,400 ringgit ($659) per tonne on Wednesday, but prices gave up gains to end at 2,365 ringgit on the long-term bearish view.... Vegetable oils analyst Dorab Mistry sees palm rising to 2,500 ringgit by May, but dropping to as much as 2,100 ringgit by December as output rises.... "This is going to be a year of two halves. Demand will outstrip supply in the first six months and gradually supply will increase in the second half," said Mistry, who heads the vegetable oil trading arm at India's Godrej Industries.
Thomas Mielke, editor of Hamburg-based newsletter Oil World, also sees "bullish supply fundamentals". He expects 2014/15 global palm oil output to grow, but by 1.5 million tonnes - the smallest rise in 13 years.... Mielke, however, said the industry must stop looking at mineral oil prices as an indicator for the edible oil market.... James Fry, chairman of LMC International Ltd, expects palm prices to average 2,260 ringgit in the first half on low demand from biofuel producers, who accounted for millions of tonnes of consumption per year for most of the past decade. Prices may drop to more than six-year lows of 1,770 ringgit if biodiesel demand does not pick up, he said. "India is the one that is most interesting," Fry told Reuters on the sidelines of the conference. "India can swing - and India does swing as prices change."... http://www.thestar.com.my/Business/Business-News/2015/03/05/Palm-oil-prices-set-for-a-year-of-two-halves/?style=biz

Energy Rout Resuming Seen by Coleman Weighing on Palm Oil Prices http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-04/energy-rout-resuming-seen-by-coleman-weighing-on-palm-oil-prices

Palm Seen Rising to May by Mistry in ‘Year of Two Halves’ http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-04/palm-seen-rallying-through-may-by-mistry-in-year-of-two-halves-

Palm Crop Optimists Seen by Mistry Overlooking Harvest Risk http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-02/palm-oil-production-the-story-in-15-as-mistry-sees-crop-risk

Biodiesel prog in Malaysia and Indonesia key to CPO price stability Intan Farhana Zainul, The Star/ANN, Kuala Lumpur | Business | Wed, March 04 2015, 12:40 PM; The continuous implementation of the biodiesel programme in Malaysia and Indonesia would be the key to ensure price stability of crude palm oil (CPO) prices for this year.United Plantations chief executive director Carl Bek-Nielsen said he expected CPO prices to trade between 2,150 ringgit (US$593) and 2,450 ringgit per tonne this year if Indonesia was able to execute its biodiesel programme well.“If it’s not going very well, I estimate the average CPO price would be between 2,000 ringgit and 2,200 ringgit per tonne,” he said during the roundtable session at the Palm and Lauric Oils Conference and Exhibition Price Outlook 2015/2016 (POC 2015) yesterday....Bek-Nielsen said bio-fuel accounted about 44 per cent of annual growth in demand for the 17 oils and fats from 2013 to 2014. “Indonesia will hold the key where the price will go. Having said that, it is still early part of the year. We have to keep an eye on the one factor and the biggest joker of them all, namely the weather,” he added.According to plantation industries and commodities minister Amar Douglas Uggah Embas, the full implementation of the B10 biodiesel programme in Malaysia will see domestic annual consumption of palm oil, reaching 1.2 million tonnes..... http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/03/04/kuala-lumpur-biodiesel-prog-msia-and-indonesia-key-cpo-price-stability.html#sthash.v2i8rAYp.dpuf