Palm oil on the European vegetable oils market continued to ease on Friday, tracking a dip in rival soyaoil on the back of rising soyabean supplies. Asking prices for palm oil were between unchanged and $17.50 a tonne down after Malaysian palm oil futures closed between 7 ringgit and 23 ringgit a tonne, down from 33-58 ringgit in the previous session.
Prices were tracking a fall in rival oils and also came under pressure from profit-taking. "It is simple mathematics. When soyaoil becomes cheaper, palm oil has to follow, otherwise it will be too expensive in comparison," one broker said. CBOT soyaoil futures were between 0.65 cents and 0.79 cents per lb at 1730 GMT, with an expected bumper South American soyabean crop and expansion in US soyabean plantings continuing to weigh on prices.