Cofeed News: till May 18th this week, edible palm oil at China’s ports come into at 650,000 tonnes, further decreasing by 3,000 from 653,000 tonnes last week, and vis-a-vis the same week of last month, it is also 10% or 72,200 tonnes lower than 722,200 tonnes. Stocks of industrial palm oil otherwise are pegged at 88,900 tonnes, up 2,700 tonnes by 3.1% from 86,200 tonnes last week.

    Stockpiles of palm oil this week trend down due to delayed shipments. According to Cofeed, Chinese buyers recently have engaged themselves in palm oil buying seeing lucrative import margins, hence import outlook is promising. Notably, more than 0.2 Mln tonnes of palm oil have been bought last week, most of which are to be delivered during June-August period. To be specific, imports of palm oil are predict to be 0.43 Mln tonnes in June (about 0.3 Mln tonnes for 24-degree palm oil and 0.13 Mln tonnes for industrial use), generally up 0.03 Mln tonnes from last week. Till Friday, price gap between soybean oil and palm oil domestically is further narrowed at 518 yuan/tonne, and seemingly, total traded volumes are not satisfactory factored in buyers’ little involvement in market when oils futures on Dalian Commodity Exchange are mostly down this week. Total traded volumes of palm oil this week are merely around 3,600 tonnes, far below 6,750 tonnes attained last week. By and large, stockpiles will largely trend up later given overwhelming imports over demand.

                         Figure: Comparison of domestic palm oil stocks in recent years

    Imports of palm oil are estimated to be around 0.40-0.43 Mln tonnes for May delivery (0.30 Mln tonnes of 24-degree palm oil, 0.10-0.13 Mln tonnes of industrial palm oil); 0.02 Mln tonnes lower than last estimates; around 0.43 Mln tonnes for June delivery (0.30 Mln tonnes of 24-degree palm oil, 0.13 Mln tonnes of industrial palm oil), up 0.03 Mln tonnes from last estimates; approximately 0.44 Mln tonnes for July delivery (0.31 Mln tonnes of 24-degree palm oil, 0.13 Mln tonnes of industrial palm oil). Arrivals of palm oil may change with the market and shipping schedule, therefore information will be updated according to latest shipments and possible defaults.