Palm oil on the European vegetable oils market eased on Wednesday on losses in Malaysian palm oil futures on worries over the prospect of cancelled shipments to India following its announcement of import tax hike on palm oil. Bearish sentiment from the Price Outlook Conference in Kuala Lumpur also weighed as industry analyst James Fry forecast palm oil futures dropping to 2,300 ringgit by July.
Another analyst, Thomas Mielke said he expected Indonesian crude palm oil prices to average $630 a tonne from April to September, below current levels of around $650. Asking prices for palm oil were mostly between $2.50 and $5 a tonne down from Tuesday after Malaysian palm oil futures closed 20 to 35 ringgit per tonne lower. At 1730 GMT, CBOT soyaoil futures were between 0.33 and 0.39 cents per lb lower on technical selling and because of a steep fall in energy markets.
EU rapeoil was quoted between two and nine euros per tonne down, tracking both easier Chicago soyameal futures and lower European rapeseed futures, which followed technical weakness in CBOT soyabean futures. Lower energy markets also added to the weakness as these could dampen demand for vegetable oils from biodiesel producers. Lauric oils fell again on the back of weaker palm oil and as sellers were trying to find buyers, which succeeded after asking prices dropped between $37.50 and $45 a tonne.