The palm oil price on the Malaysian commodity exchange fell to its lowest in six weeks amid expectations of a seasonal uptick in production, losses in related vegetable oils and a decline in oil markets. Crude palm oil futures on the Bursa Malaysia Derivatives (BMD) exchange, which influence international vegetable oil prices, fell to MR3,996/mt ($833.80/mt) by the end of morning trade April 17, down 2% following overnight losses in soybean oil on the Chicago Board of Trade and falling prices in China. In China, the second largest buyer of vegetable oils after India, the benchmark Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) soybean oil contract fell 1.2% and the palm olein contract also eased 1.2%, to Yuan 7,474/mt ($1,033.16/mt) April 17. A likely bumper harvest of soybean oil in South America coupled with China's weak demand for soybean could be a drag on palm oil prices as the two vegetable oils trade in tandem, David Ng, a trader at Kuala Lumpur-based trading company Iceberg X, said April 17. Export data from Malaysia and Indonesia this week showed a spurt in demand in March along with reduced palm oil inventories. However, traders shrugged off these bullish signals as big buyers in India and China were turning to sunflower oil and soybean oil, multiple analysts told S&P Global Commodity Insights. Despite data showing that Malaysia's palm oil inventories fell to a 10-month low on April 15, vegetable oil production updates globally soured trade sentiment this week. Global oilseeds lobby Abiove revised its estimate for Brazilian soybean production upward for 2023 in data released April 16. With the upward revision pegging Brazil's 2023 soybean output at a record high of 160.3 million mt, its beginning stocks this year have been estimated at 5.9 million mt, 1.2 million mt more than what was calculated previously. The new data comes as ample supply of soybeans has kept a lid on prices in the world's largest soybean producer. The average price of crude palm oil imports by India in March was about $70/mt more than that of crude sunflower oil, pushing buyers to prefer sunflower oil over palm oil, trade body Solvents Extractors' Association of India had said April 11.