Palm oil futures in Malaysia rose 8% for the week, supporting sunflower oil prices

Palm oil futures in Malaysia rose 8% over the past week amid possible supply disruptions due to heavy rains that have reduced already low output.

February palm oil futures on Bursa rose 2.82% to 5,023 ringgit/t or $1,131.3/t on Friday, adding 8.21% for the week, the biggest weekly gain since June 2023 .

Experts believe that heavy rains, especially in the east and north of Malaysia, will worsen the already weak production of palm oil in the country. In some states, flooding may complicate the situation, and reduced supplies will keep prices high.

According to the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (PMOB), during October, palm oil stocks in the country decreased by 6.32% to 1.88 million tons, and its production decreased by 1.35% to 1.8 million tons.

On the stock exchange in Dalian on Friday, the most active contract for soybean oil rose by 1.49%, and for palm oil - by 3.05%. US markets were closed for the Thanksgiving holiday, but today they will open the week higher with soybean oil prices down 9.1% in 2 weeks to $919/t.

Rising palm oil prices will support sunflower oil prices in Ukraine, which fell by $30-50/t in ports to $1,110-1,120/t during the week under the pressure of speculative declines in soybean and rapeseed oil prices. However, the rapid recovery of rapeseed prices indicates that the oil markets will soon return to their previous levels.