Palm oil falls tracking rival oils, logs 1.5% weekly climb

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian palm oil futures fell more than 1% on Friday, weighed by weaker Dalian and Chicago soyoil prices, although the contract posted a weekly gain helped by concerns around tight global edible oil supplies.

The benchmark palm oil contract for November delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange slid 63 ringgit, or 1.43%, to 4,329 ringgit ($1,033.67) a tonne.

For the week, it is up 1.5%, rebounding from the previous week's sharp decline.

Palm oil gains over 1pc

Weekend profit-taking also took a bite from this week's gains, said Sathia Varqa, co-founder of Singapore-based Palm Oil Analytics.

Top producer Indonesia set its crude palm oil export reference price 13% higher in September, Musdhalifah Machmud, the deputy minister for food and agriculture, told Reuters.

That implies a jump in its export tax from $93 per tonne in August to $166 in September. Export levies, however, remained the same at $175 per tonne.

"Higher Indonesian tax for September shipment was widely expected and priced in earlier," Varqa said.

"With elevated cash and futures prices, Malaysia prices are unlikely to rise higher ahead of August supply and demand estimate next week."

The US Environmental Protection Agency has recommended retroactively lowering biofuel blending mandates for 2020, two sources familiar with the matter said, after the agency sent a proposal on the mandates to the White House for review.

Dalian's most-active soyoil contract fell 0.9%, while its palm oil contract eased 0.9%. Soyoil prices on the Chicago Board of Trade were down 2.1%.

Palm oil is affected by price movements in related oils as they compete for a share in the global vegetable oils market.

Malaysia's average crude palm oil prices are expected to rise to 3,600 ringgit ($859.19) a tonne this year compared with 2020 due to slower output growth and higher prices of rival soyoil, the nation's palm oil board said.