India, China seen aggressively buying palm oil in short term, industry expert says
JAKARTA, June 10 (Reuters) - Demand for palm oil from India and China is expected to increase in coming months as recent price corrections provide attractive entry points for the big buyers, an industry expert said on Tuesday.
Prices of palm oil in Malaysia gained nearly 20% last year, but shed around 12% so far this year as the high prices led to palm oil losing some competitive edge to rival oils such as soyoil.
"We feel in the short term, those markets will come back. We see heavy buying from India, China," Julian McGill, managing director of advisory firm Glenauk Economics, said.
"We're not worried for the next year about a build up in stocks," he told participants at a palm oil forum in Jakarta.
He noted Indian buyers, who have been cutting palm oil imports since December, are coming back strongly with purchase for June to August as prices of palmolein are at a discount compared to rival oils.
He said China's physical palm oil importers were also actively buying for June to August deliveries.
"The Chinese buyers may stock up quite a lot because their stocks are relatively low," McGill said.
The demand would help keep palm oil prices between 3,900 ringgit and 4,200 ringgit per metric ton in the coming six months, he said.
The main palm oil contract in Malaysian bourse closed at 3,864 ringgit per ton on Tuesday.
The sustainability of the demand would continue to depend on palm price competitiveness against other oils, with peak export volumes seen around August, McGill added.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Sky News
32 minutes ago
- Sky News
China strikes cautious tone after Trump claims trade deal is 'done'
China will "always honour its commitments" when it comes to negotiating trade disagreements with the US, according to a spokesperson for the Chinese government. But when pushed by Sky News, he refrained from confirming what those commitments are. The reluctance is at odds with President Trump, who declared on his Truth Social account that "our deal with China is done", while also claiming that China has agreed to supply rare earth metals to the US"upfront", and to a 55% tariff rate on its goods. The comments follow high-stakes talks between delegations from the two countries in London aimed at stabilising the relationship amid an escalating trade and supply chain war. China's refusal to confirm these details has raised speculation that, contrary to what the US side is claiming, there may still be significant disagreements and some details yet to be worked out. The continued silence comes after two days of negotiations between delegations from the US and China in the UK. While both sides confirmed that they had agreed a "framework" to implement the "consensus" reached at previous talks in Geneva last month, as well as during a phone call between President Xi and President Trump on 5 June, the delegations were supposed to be taking the agreement to their respective leaders for sign-off. When asked by Sky News if any of the details in Trump's Truth Social post reflected what China understood to be in the deal, Lin Jian, China's foreign ministry spokesperson said "the two sides achieved new progress in addressing the concerns on economic and trade issues". "We always honour our commitments. Since we've reached common understandings, the two sides need to follow them." 👉 Follow Trump100 on your podcast app 👈 When pushed by Sky News on whether China agrees with Trump's Truth Social assessment that the US-China relationship is "excellent", Lin declined to agree, saying simply: "Our position on relations with the United States has been consistent and clear". Such lukewarm language is not uncommon in China but there will likely be significant displeasure at the way Trump is unilaterally publishing details that may not yet have been officially signed off. It is in stark contrast to China's communication landscape which is highly scripted and controlled, and if it was designed to force China into an agreement it could well backfire. Indeed, if everything in Trump's Truth Social post is true it would represent quite a coup for the US, and that feels a little unlikely given the valuable bargaining chips China has, particularly over rare earth metals. 0:54 This will likely have been a crunch point in negotiations. China has the vast majority of the world's rare earth metals which are vital in the production of everything from cars to weaponry, and recent export controls imposed in response to Trump's tariffs have brought some production lines to the brink of standstill. In response, the Trump administration imposed extra export controls on high-tech chips, chip development technology and parts needed to make jet engines, as well as moving to revoke student visas for Chinese nationals. President Trump indicated in his Truth Social post that the measures to revoke visas will be rowed back. When pushed by Sky News, Lin refrained from commenting on whether Trump's communications on this matter have undermined the relationship more broadly, but the stakes remain enormously high, with the unfolding supply chain war set to do significant damage to the economies of both nations.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Wine investors thirsty for respite as prices continue to sour
Like most luxury goods markets, investment grade wine has endured a bruising couple of years. Wine had enjoyed a bumper pandemic, with the combination of lockdown conditions and lower interest rates helping to attract new investors and drive prices to all-time highs. But the Liv-Ex 1000 – the broadest available index of investment grade wine – has slumped more than 20 per cent from its 2022 peak, marking an unusually large decline in the alternative investment asset's history. Analysts point to higher interest rates, subdued demand from key markets like China and, more recently, US trade tariffs. Given the context in which the decline has taken place, wine's reputation as an effective hedge against inflation may have taken some damage. The value of some very wealthy people's cellars will also have declined significantly, although they will theoretically lose less money if they take the unusual step among fine wine collectors of opening some bottles. But wine boasts an impressive enough longer-term performance record, as well as lucrative UK tax efficiency credentials, to keep many investors on board. They will be hoping that prices have finally hit the bottom of the barrel. 'The bottom was expected to come a lot sooner,' account manager at Moncharm Wine Trader, Matthew Knight, told This is Money. he said: 'We had a very unique time [before 2022] when the impact of the pandemic was amplified by certain catalysts like a huge harvest shortage in Burgundy, and there came a point where prices were too high. 'We're still waiting for the resurgence in life after the pandemic from China. 'In the West, there was a significant bounce back in demand in 2022, but it's been a lot more subdued and muted in the East, so that's a major value driver that's been missing.' Recent headwinds have been driven by the White House, with wine caught up the in the market chaos that ensued after Donald Trump's 'liberation day' tariffs. Liv-Ex's May 2025 market report shows total trade value plummeted 30.2 per cent month-on-month in April in the wake of the announcement, though the market was also impacted by a major trade show in Bordeaux and the timing of the Easter break. And the online marketplace expects US trade policy to continue to weigh on the asset class as uncertainty persists. It said: 'While the 90-day reduction in EU wine tariffs has brought some temporary respite, the situation remains one of severe uncertainty. 'For instance, it is unclear whether there might be any changes to a goods on the water policy. 'Given this lack of clarity, it is likely that US buyers will continue to sit tight until 9 July when a further decision can be expected.' Over the longer term, however, analysts point to the influence of US interest rates. 'The past five years have taught us some important lessons about the relationship between interest rates and luxury collectable prices,' former investment banker and co-founder of trading platform Cru World Wine Jeremy Howard wrote late last year. 'In a nutshell, falling/low interest rates appear to have more power to drive prices upwards than we previously realised. 'But conversely, rising/high rates can also erase those gains.' However, he added, 'value is starting to emerge in a number of areas'. Interest rates could have a bigger impact on the wine market than previously thought The fine wine market reached a value of €30billion in 2024, with the Liv-ex Fine Wine 1000 up 300 per cent in the 20 years since its inception. Analysts at Bain & Company expect the market to be worth €35billion to €40billion by 2030, which would represent a 4 to 6 per cent compound annual growth rate from 2025. Bain's most recent Fine Wines and Restaurants Market Monitor report highlights Trump's tariffs, 'cautious consumer spending' and 'increasing trends toward alcohol moderation by newer generations' as key factors holding the market back. 'While the market faces short-term headwinds, its fundamentals remain strong, positioning it as a core component of the luxury landscape for years to come,' added Federica Levato, leader of the firm's EMEA fashion and luxury practice. For Moncharm's Knight, a key catalyst for an improvement could be the market reception to closely-watched new wine releases. He says: 'There is quite a lot of excitement around the potential of what a new En Premeur campaign could bring. 'The 2024 vintage which was unveiled very recently was priced at about 25 per cent below the previous year. 'While this may not be enough alone for the vintage or the Bordeaux market to rally, it's certainly one of the key aspects that we needed to see for people to feel a bit more excitement about buying some wine in the barrel.'
Sky News
an hour ago
- Sky News
India crash is fresh setback in Boeing's bid to restore its reputation
As hundreds lie dead following the latest tragedy to beset a Boeing passenger plane, is is too early to determine blame. Pilot error, engine failure and bird strikes are among the theories all being banded about. Only the recovery of flight AI171's black box flight recorders are likely to provide the concrete answers. What is inescapable though is that this is an air disaster the plane's maker, Boeing, could well do without. Plane crash latest: 53 Britons on board It sounds petty, in the midst of such a catastrophe, to be talking about the impact on a company but this has been an civil aviation giant left deeply scarred, in the public eye, through its attitude to safety in recent years. While the 787 Dreamliner's record had been impressive up until today, the same can not be said for the company's 737 MAX planes. The entire fleet was grounded globally for almost two years following the demise of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 outside Addis Ababa in March 2019. All 157 people aboard were killed. Six months earlier, a Lion Air 737 MAX, carrying 189 passengers and crew, crashed in Indonesia. At fault was flight control software that has since been rectified. That recent past continues to haunt Boeing. It took those crashes to uncover a culture of cover-up. It amounted to not only a corporate failure but one of regulation and justice too, according to critics, as relatives were denied their days in court due to plea bargains. 1:31 Just last month, the US Justice Department and Boeing agreed a non-prosecution agreement over those two fatal crashes in return for $1.1bn in fines and an admission that it obstructed the investigation. It raises several questions over the US legal system and its ability to police corporate activity and incentivise playing by the rules. Would a British manufacturer have been offered such a deal by US prosecutors? As for regulation, we're told oversight has been stepped up and the number of planes that Boeing makes is still subject to controls in a bid to boost quality. Read more: The company has long denied putting profit before safety but that is what almost every whistleblower to have come forward to date has alleged. The production limits were implemented after a mid-air door plug blowout aboard an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 flight in January last year. They are hampering Boeing's efforts to restore profitability. A 5% fall in its share price at the market open on Wall Street goes to the heart of Boeing's problem. That is every time a Boeing plane is involved in an accident or failure, investors' first instincts are to run for the hills. Boeing says it is seeking more information on the nature of the Air India crash.
