Palm oil prices on the European vegetable oils market rose on Thursday following Malaysian palm oil futures up on weaker than forecast production growth in April. Asking prices for palm oil were mostly between $2.50 and $20 a tonne higher after Malaysian palm oil futures closed between 14 and 47 ringgit per tonne.
"Palm oil futures gained mostly because dealers watched the production number and good exports for the first 10 days of May. Buyers on the cash market expect a correction on those higher prices soon as already huge Malaysian palm oil stocks grew again to the highest in 2017 during April and output is still expected to rise in the coming months," one broker said. At 1630 GMT CBOT soyaoil futures were between flat and 0.11 cents per lb up on technical buying as Chicago dealers sold soyameal contracts on the back of USDA's forecasts for larger than expected world soyabean ending stocks for both 2016/17 and 2017/18 marketing years, and were buying back soyaoil futures. Stronger energy markets also added to the strength.
EU rapeoil was mostly offered at between one euro per tonne up and two euros down, tracking the weaker trend in rapeseed futures on a bright global oilseeds supply outlook. Firmer energy markets and stronger CBOT soyaoil limited losses. Coconut oil dropped sharply again as short positions were covered and buyers were found at substantially lower levels trading as much as $100 down from Wednesday. Palmkernel oil was offered at $25 a tonne higher, tracking the trend in palm oil. The spread between coconut oil and palmkernel oil shrunk to under $400 a tonne.