KUALA LUMPUR, July 10 (Xinhua) -- Malaysia, the world's second largest palm oil producer, saw its palm oil stocks in June fall 1.93 percent month-on-month to 1.53 million tonnes, Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) statistics showed on Monday.
According to the industry regulator, the fall is in line with the 8.48 percent month-on-month decline of output in June, to 1.51 million tonnes.
Meanwhile, the export decreased by 8.39 percent to 1.38 million tonnes when compared with 1.51 million tonnes in May.
Ta Research analyst Angeline Chin told Xinhua that the monthly production fall of palm oil is more than market expectations, which may due to the shorter working days in June.
She is expecting the total production this year to be 19.5 million tonnes, but as June production dropped more than expected, she is cautious on the production trend going forward.
On palm oil prices, she expected it to trend down to between 2,400 to 2,600 ringgit (558 U.S dollars to 605 U.S. dollars) per tonne in the second half, as soy production is expected to go up in the third quarter.
The palm oil statistics, however, is within Kenanga Research's analyst Voon Yee Ping's expectation.
Voon, who sees the production fall a temporarily trend, maintains her forecasts on palm oil production of 19.95 million tonnes and crude palm oil prices of 2,550 ringgit per tonne this year.
