MUMBAI: Malaysian palm oil futures fell nearly 1% on Friday, tracking weakness in Chicago soyoil prices due to ample supplies, and amid concerns over demand because of its premium over rival oils.
The benchmark palm oil contract for June delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange fell 39 ringgit, or 0.9%, to 4,279 ringgit ($897.63) a metric ton.
The contract has lost 1.5% this week, after hitting a year high of 4,443 ringgit last week. “Palm oil prices are catching up with the recent fall in soybean oil prices.
After a two-day market closure, palm oil is now adjusting to the price decline of rival vegetable oils,” said a New Delhi-based dealer with a global trade house.
Soyoil prices on the Chicago Board of Trade rose 0.4% on Friday after losing 3.2% on Thursday. Palm oil is affected by price movements in related oils as they compete for a share in the global vegetable oils market.
Palm oil stocks have been falling in recent months due to lower output and rising exports, but the trend could reverse with a rise in production and as buyers such as India are shifting to rival oils because of higher prices, the dealer said.
India’s palm oil imports in March plunged to their lowest in 10 months as higher prices prompted refiners to substitute palm oil with sunoil, resulting in sunoil imports reaching the second-highest on record.
Malaysia’s palm oil inventories are expected to have declined 6.65% from the prior month to an eight-month low of 1.79 million tons at the end of March, a Reuters survey showed.
The Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) is scheduled to release the data on April 15. Exports of Malaysian palm oil products for April 1-10 rose 12.7% to 431,190 metric tons from a month ago, cargo surveyor Intertek Testing Services said on Wednesday.
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