Cash US prices for palm oil and refined palm oil products were higher on Thursday June 20, in step with gains in benchmark futures on the Bursa Malaysia Exchange.

On Thursday, Fastmarkets’ price assessment of palm oil, RBD, fob US Gulf was $0.4825-0.4875 per lb, up slightly from levels on Tuesday June 18. Fastmarkets’ price assessment of palm olein, RBD, fob US Gulf was $0.4850-0.4900 per lb, also slightly higher from the prior session.

Palm oil prices have largely been rangebound around the $0.48-0.49 per lb level. Palm oil had been losing market share to cheaper animal fats, such as tallow. Lower tallow prices when compared with palm oil led to livestock reformulations in the US feed industry.

However, for the first time since mid-December, palm oil prices flipped into a discount to the tallow market, with packer grade bleachable fancy tallow (BFT) trading up to 51 cents per lb Chicago basis on Thursday, from 46 cents per lb previously.

…