Vegoils: Palm oil slumps to near two-year low tracking soyoil

By Emily Chow

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysian palm oil futures slumped more than 2 percent on Tuesday to their lowest in nearly two years, tracking weakness in related edible oils.

The benchmark palm oil contract for September delivery on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives Exchange was down 1.8 percent at 2,265 ringgit ($566.82) per tonne at noon, after declining as much as 2.3 percent to its lowest since July 26, 2016 at 2,253 ringgit earlier in the session.

Trading volumes stood at 38,727 lots of 25 tonnes each at the midday break.

"Palm market is down today tracking externals," said a Kuala Lumpur-based futures trader, referring to soyoil on the Chicago Board of Trade and China's Dalian Commodity Exchange.

The Chicago July soybean oil contract declined over 1 percent, in line with soybeans, over a deepening trade war between Washington and Beijing.

Palm oil prices track the performance of other edible oils, as they compete for a share in the global vegetable oils market.

In other related oils, the September soybean oil on China's Dalian Commodity Exchange dropped 1.8 percent, while the Dalian September palm oil contract plunged 4.5 percent.

Market players may also be trading cautiously ahead of export data, said another trader, referring to June 1-20 shipment data from cargo surveyors.

Malaysian palm oil shipments in the first half of June declined 7.2 percent-9.6 percent from a month earlier, according to AmSpec Agri Malaysia and Societe Generale de Surveillance.

Palm oil still targets its June 13 low of 2,300 ringgit per tonne, said Wang Tao, a Reuters market analyst for commodities and energy technicals.

(Reporting by Emily Chow; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)