Palm oil: Relationships

Every element and industry that Palm oil is linked to, and how. Each pair has its own card explaining the relationships between the two.

Biodiesel (FAME): Palm oil is the feedstock for Indonesia's biodiesel programme, which used 14.2 million kL in 2025, so each rise in the blend mandate takes palm oil off the export market. Importers such as India feel this through tighter supply and a narrower discount of palm to soft oils. (researched)
Crude oil: Indonesia blends palm biodiesel into diesel under a mandate funded by export levies, which moved from B40 to B50 from July 2026, so the gap between palm oil and gasoil prices, the POGO spread, decides how costly the mandate is; high oil prices make palm biodiesel competitive and support palm prices. (researched)
Fatty alcohols: Most fatty alcohols for detergents and personal care are made from palm kernel oil and other plant oils, so their price moves closely with palm oil prices. A petrochemical route from ethylene competes for the same market, which caps how far the oleochemical route can price above it. (researched)
Food and beverage processing: Palm oil is the largest single vegetable oil, about 35% of world demand, and is semi-solid at room temperature, so food makers use it for frying, baking and spreads; India buys it from a market dominated by Indonesia and Malaysia, and Indian buyers switch towards soybean and sunflower oils when palm loses its price edge. (researched)
Renewable diesel and SAF: Palm oil is the largest single feedstock for diesel-type biofuels worldwide, and its mill residues are prized as waste-based inputs for renewable diesel and SAF. EU rules are pushing virgin palm oil out of these fuels by 2030 while rewarding residues, which has created incentives to mislabel palm oil as waste. (researched)
Soybeans: Palm oil and soybean oil are the two largest edible oils and close substitutes, so palm supply and prices feed into the value of every soybean crushed, and India switches its imports between them on price. (researched)
Sunflower: Sunflower oil from the Black Sea and palm oil from Southeast Asia compete for India's frying and cooking oil demand, so a supply shock in one, as in 2022, sends buyers to the other and lifts both prices. (researched)
Surfactants: Many cleaning surfactants start from palm, mainly from palm kernel oil, whose short-chain lauric fats make the fatty alcohols behind shampoos and liquid detergents. Kernel oil is a small co-product of palm oil, so surfactant makers depend on a supply set by palm harvests, and they can switch to petrochemical routes such as LAS when palm-based inputs are dear. (researched)
Fatty acids: Palm oil is a raw material for fatty acids; their prices have moved together.
Biomass: Biomass needs palm oil.
Cocoa: Their prices have moved together.
Coconut oil: Their prices have moved together.
Glycerine: Palm oil is a raw material for glycerine.
Groundnuts: Their prices have moved together.
Household and personal care: Household and personal care depends on palm oil.
Rapeseed: Their prices have moved together.
Timber: Their prices have moved together.
Wholesale and retail trade: Wholesale and retail trade depends on palm oil.