Palm Oil Price Cut to Lift Soap Makers' Margins

摘要

The bottomlines of toilet soap makers are likely to have improved substantially following a steady decline in the price of palm oil,a key input in the manufacture of toilet soaps.The global price of palm oil has registered a steady decline of about 20% over the past few months and has fallen further in recent weeks.Soap makers such as HLL,Godrej Soaps,Wipro and others had hiked prices in early '04 by 15-20% following a sustained rise in crude palm oil oil prices.Industry sources said prices have crashed further after China,the largest buyer of soyabeans,cut its import forecast to 19 m tonnes from the previous year's 22m tonnes following a record harvest.Leader,HLL,which has a 57% market share,calls the slots in the market.HLL raised prices of all its leading soap brands