Imports of Palm oil India's January prices fell to their lowest level in nearly 14 years as refiners switched to cheaper soybean oil, driven by negative palm oil refining margins, a leading trade body said on Wednesday.
The decline in palm oil imports by India, the world’s largest buyer of vegetable oils, is expected to impact the market. This move is likely to pressure Malaysian palm oil benchmark prices. In addition, the decline in Indian imports could benefit U.S. soybean oil futures.
Palm oil imports in January fell 45% from December to 275,241 tonnes, the lowest since March 2011, the Solvent Extractors Association of India (SEA) said.
India imported, on average, more than 750,000 tonnes of palm oil per month. This volume was recorded throughout the marketing year ending in October 2024. The information is from SEA.
Palm oil becomes more expensive and drives imports of rival oils
Palm oil typically trades at a discount to soybean and sunflower oil. However, falling stocks have pushed prices above rival oils. Those oils, in turn, are in abundant supply.
Soybean oil imports in January increased by 5.6% to 444,026 tons. This was the highest volume recorded in seven months. Sunflower oil imports also grew, with an increase of 8.9%. The imported volume reached 288,284 tons. The industry body released the information.
Lower palm oil shipments reduced the country's total vegetable oil imports in January by 14.8% to 1 million tonnes, the lowest in 11 months, the entity said.
India buys palm oil mainly from Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, and imports soybean oil and sunflower oil from Argentina, Brazil, Russia and Ukraine.
Source: Rajendra Jadhav, Anushree Mukherjee and Anjana Anil | Notícias Agrícolas
