Palm oil on the European vegetable oils market eased further on Friday, reflecting worries over Chinese economic growth and further weakness in soyaoil due to beneficial US Midwest weather. “Palm oil came down with all the other segments of the European cash market, and also because of overall weakness in other commodity and energy markets,” one broker said. “There are plenty of sellers, but buyers are hard to find with prices going down constantly.”
Palm oil was mostly offered between $5 and $12.50 a tonne down from Thursday after Malaysian palm oil futures closed between 2 and 23 ringgit per tonne lower, supported by weakness in the ringgit, which makes the oil cheaper for buyers holding foreign currencies.
At 1730 GMT CBOT soyaoil futures were between 0.37 and 0.76 cents per lb down, because of improving US crop weather that could boost yield prospects in the Midwest. Concern about China’s economy also weighed on futures. Rapeoil was offered between 11 and 12 euros per tonne down from Thursday. Weakness in CBOT soyaoil and a dip in rapeseed futures, on an improving global oilseed supply outlook, dragged rapeoil down. Continued lack of buyers versus plenty of sellers and a weaker dollar also weighed.