China produced 106.463 million tonnes of crude oil in the first eight months of this year, down 0.9 per cent on a year earlier, said a report issued by the State Statistical Bureau on Monday. Crude oil output in August alone was 13.4944 million tonnes, it said. China's natural gas output reached 14.138 billion cubic metres from January to August, down 1.7 per cent from a year earlier, it said. China produced 1.765 billion cubic metres of natural gas in August alone, it said.

India buys kerosene

Indian Oil Corp (IOC) has bought up to 90,000 tonnes of superior kerosene oil (SKO) through its supplementary tender for November, traders said on Monday. IOC has awarded two 40,000 to 45,000-tonne cargoes each to Royal Dutch Shell Group and Dutch trader Vitol at 44 cents and 38 cents respectively over the Singapore quotes, they said. Both cargoes, which are for delivery November 11-20 into the east coast Indian ports of Madras/Haldia, were awarded late last Friday inthe tender that closed last Thursday, traders said. In its first November tender, IOC bought up to 210,000 tonnes of SKO in six cargoes, four 30,000-tonne cargoes for delivery into the West coast Indian Port of Bombay and two 40,000 to 45,000-tonne cargoes each to Madras/Haldia on the east coast.

India takes Dubai crude

Indian Oil Corp (IOC) has taken four cargoes of Dubai crude and one of Gulf of Suez blend in its latest crude tender, trading sources said on Friday. Two Dubai cargoes apiece had been accepted from Total and Mobil, the traders said. The Gulf of Suez was understood to have been offered in by Glencore. IOC had received offers of 11 cargoes of November Dubai crude by the close of the tender on Thursday. Traders earlier said Chevron had been awarded a VLCC of Escravos and Glencore two VLCCs of Qua Iboe. IOC was said to have also taken a VLCC of third decade October Qua Iboe after asking for offers of September and October crude cargoes which, they said was an unusual move.

ACCESScrude up

Crude prices on the ACCESS after-hours trading system rose on Monday boosted by news of production disruption and refinery closures due to Hurricane Georges, brokers said. However, they said the impact from the news appears to be wearing off, and crude prices steadying. At 0059 GMT, November NYMEX light crude was bid at $15.93 per barrel and offered at $15.99, compared to $15.75, the level of last Friday's New York close. On Friday, the contract closed 23 cents lower. "It would be because of the hurricane, and all the shut-ins and shut-downs in the Gulf of Mexico," a New York-based broker said. Hurricane Georges swept through the Gulf of Mexico and bore into the US Louisiana coast at the weekend causing severe disruption of offshore oil and gas production and temporary closures at at least two oil refineries. The broker said prices appear to be settling down after the initial rise. "So we traded up to $16.10 on not too much volume, and it came right back off to...the levels we are now," hesaid.

China opens metal market

China's Huatong Distribution and Industry Development Corp (Group) formally opened on Monday a National wholesale market for nonferrous metals, company officials said. The Shanghai-based Huatong Nonferrous Metal Wholesale Market would trade electrolytic copper, copper rods, copper concentrate, aluminium, alumina, zinc and lead, among other products, Huatong said in a statement. The market had some 68 members, it said. Huatong, a big state-owned industrial group, operates under the State Internal Trade Bureau, the statement said.

Shanghai copper firmer

Shanghai copper futures were firmer in early trade on Monday as sentiment was buoyed by gains on the London Metal Exchange last week, traders said. But higher domestic warehouse figures were capping any LME-inspired advance, traders said. The active January 1999 contract stood at 17,000 yuan ($2,053) in the first hour, unchanged from its opening but up 40 yuan from Friday's close. It touched a low of 16,980.The key December 1998 contract added 30 to 16,750. LME three-month copper closed at $1,664, up $14 from Thursday's afternoon kerb close amid rumours that major producer Norilsk Nickel was facing production problems. Norilsk's parent company Interros controls UNEXIM Bank, whose London assets were frozen by Lehman Bros Holdings for non-payment. On Friday, the Shanghai Metal Exchange reported that warehouse copper stocks rose 7,851 tonnes to 96,755 in the latest week. "This negative factor was reflected on the low turnover," a trader said. Copper trade was also thinner than usual ahead of the long National Day holiday later this week, traders said. The market will be closed on Thursday and Friday as well as the weekend. Spot copper stood at 16,100 yuan against 16,050 on last Friday. No aluminium contracts were traded in the first hour.

Hong Kong gold firmer

Hong Kong spot gold opened higher on Monday than New York's Friday close, and dealers said prices were seen firming slightly during the day.Bullion opened at $294.40/90 an ounce, up from New York's $293.90/294.40 close on Friday. "Some short-covering was seen in the early session, which is likely to hold the gold price," said a dealer at a local securities house. "The gold market has upward interest in the Asia market,but I don't expect any strong buying interest and I guess the price of gold will probably trade between $294 to $296 today." Spot silver opened at $5.17/20 per ounce in Hong Kong. It ended quoted at $5.16/19 in New York on Friday. Local gold opened HK$8 higher at HK$2,697 a tael.

China's magnesium export price

China has decided to set minimum export prices for magnesium from next month, an industry source in Japan said on Monday. The source said the Chinese magnesium industry and government had agreed to set the minimum export price of magnesium for the rest of this year at $1,950 per tonne on a free-on-board (fob) basis effective October 1. It would be raised to $2,320 next year, he said. Suppliers who violated theregulation would immediately lose their export rights, the source said. No comments were immediately available from the Chinese government or the country's magnesium industry.

Dalian soybean futures end down

Dalian soybean futures ended down across the board on Monday in line with losses on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) on Friday, traders said. The key November 1998 contract ended at 2,656 yuan ($321) per tonne, down 16 yuan from Friday's settlement price. It opened at 2,660 yuan and hit an intraday high of 2,668 yuan and a low of 2,650 yuan. CBOT soybean prices were mostly down on Friday, settling one cent per bushel higher to three cents lower with November down three at $5.28. Dalian's May 1999 contract fell 25 yuan to 2,433. The January 1999 contract fell 20 to 2,360; March 16 to 2,372; and July 31 to 2,449. Volume rose sharply to 65,576 lots from 22,656 lots on Friday. Investors were unwilling to trade aggressively before China's National Day holiday on October 1 and 2, when the Dalianexchange would be closed, traders said.

Pakistan oils seen down

Pakistan's domestic vegetable oil prices are likely to remain depressed this week on high stocks and low demand, dealers said on Monday. They said increased cotton-seed arrivals from the 1998/99(July/June) crop will also lower vegoil imports this year. Pakistan lowered its official estimate of cotton production on Saturday to 10.6 million bales of 375 lb each, from an earlier projection of 10.8 million bales, for 1998/99 (July-June). "Still we expect 25 per cent higher arrivals from the new crop compared to last year," dealer Saulat Khan of Saulat Enterprises said. Domestic cotton-seed is one of Pakistan's major sources of vegetable oil, which is mixed or blended with palm oil and soyoil to make cooking oil. Khan said demand is slack because there is less offtake of vegoil by Pakistan's edible oil industry these days. "Sale at the retail level in Punjab (province) has slowed down," he added. Pakistan's consumption of vegoil isestimated at an annual average of 1.5 million to 1.85 million tonnes. Dealers said sluggish global demand has also affected international palm oil prices. Pakistan's import of palm oil and soyoil in 1997/98(July-June) was 1.72 million tonnes, from 1.057 million tonnes in same period of 1996/97.

Indonesian palm olein stable

Indonesia's palm olein market was mostly stable in early trading on Monday but traders expected prices to soften further on increasing supply. "We've seen limited buying interest this morning, which is making prices stay stable for a while," said one trader in Jakarta. "But prices will soften soon because we've learned that cooperatives will start releasing cooking oil in the market on Tuesday," he said. Olein was being offered in Jakarta at 4,500 rupiah/kg.

The Indonesian Distribution Cooperative (KDI), which groups market cooperatives assigned to distribute cooking oil, will sell olein at 4,610 rupiah/kg to distributors, traders said. Distributors will sell olein toretailers at 4,750rupiah/kg. Retailers will sell olein at 5,000 rupiah/kg to consumers, traders said. Traders said they expected to see an improvement in the quality of crude palm oil (CPO) because of recent rains.