After a sluggish week of trading, activity in the US animal fats and oils markets increased at the end of the month, with prices averaging mostly steady to slightly lower by Friday February 28.

Despite stable-to-firm demand across several sectors, market sentiment weakened by Friday, weighed down by declining soybean oil futures, a further narrowing of the bean oil/heating oil (BOHO) spread, lower biodiesel renewable identification number (RIN) prices and ongoing trade policy concerns.

In the delivered Gulf market, used cooking oil and tallow max 20% FFA traded lower at 52.5-53 cents per lb and 54 cents per lb, respectively. Meanwhile, both renderer- and packer-grade bleachable fancy tallow in Chicago was steady for the week, with sources describing the market as “well sold” for March, leaving participants in no rush to move material.

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