Palm oil slips as weaker rival oils outweigh strong export outlook

JAKARTA: Malaysian palm oil futures eased on Thursday, ending a three-session winning streak, as weaker rival vegetable oils on the Dalian and Chicago markets pressured prices, despite stronger export estimates for the first half of October.

The benchmark December palm oil contract on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was down 78 ringgit, or 1.66%, at 4,622 ringgit ($1,132.84) a metric ton at close.

Dalian’s most-active soyoil contract fell 1.98%, while its palm oil contract lost 3.03%. Soyoil prices on the Chicago Board of Trade slipped 0.92%.

Palm oil tracks rival edible oils, as it competes for a share of the global vegetable oils market.

Cargo surveyors estimated that Malaysian palm oil products exports for October 1-15 jumped between 58.3% and 43.2% from a month earlier.

India’s palm oil imports in September rose 4.5% from August to 817,884 metric tons, the Solvent Extractors’ Association of India said on Thursday.

Malaysia lowered its November crude palm oil reference price, keeping the export duty at 10%, a circular on the Malaysian Palm Oil Board website showed on Wednesday.

Crude oil prices fell by about 2% on Thursday as potential US steps to ease restrictions on Russia’s “shadow fleet” tankers soothed price concerns. Attacks on ships in the Middle East and Ukrainian strikes on Russian energy infrastructure, however, limited the decline.

Weaker crude oil futures make palm a less attractive option for biodiesel feedstock.

The ringgit, palm’s currency of trade, strengthened 0.02% against the dollar, making the commodity slightly more expensive for buyers holding foreign currencies.