Vegetable oil prices were little changed in Europe on Friday as a holiday in the United States and uncertainty about planned Indonesian export levies helped to slow trading. RBD palm olein for October-December shipment traded at $629 a tonne, up $4 from last business on Thursday, but asking prices ended the day unchanged to $2.50 a tonne lower.
Brokers said the market was waiting to see if top producer Indonesia would finally introduce levies on palm exports on July 16 after repeated delays. The levies were announced in March and President Joko Widodo signed a regulation in May to impose a $50 a tonne levy on shipments of crude palm oil (CPO) and $30 on processed palm oil products.
"Nobody is sure because it has been postponed so many times. As a result, many in the market are largely holding their breath until there is more clarity," one broker said. Rapeseed oil asking prices ranged from 3 euros a tonne lower to 5 euros higher as brokers continued to keep a close watch on the weather in the United States. Concern about excessively wet weather in the southern Midwest has buoyed soybean oil prices and provided spillover support for rapeseed oil. "If the rain is continuing, I'm sure that the markets will advance additionally. If the rain stops and the sun is shining, I'm sure that the market is going down the next day," one rapeseed oil broker said.