This week (25th-31st Aug), operation rate in domestic cottonseed oil mills continues to rise, mainly due to the machine resumption after the end of maintenance in Shandong and Hebei. Among 136 oil mills surveyed by Cofeed, 15 oil mills are in operation (some are not in full state) this week. The stock of cottonseed crush volume in national oil mills amounts to 30,900 tonnes (cotton oil to 3,581 tonnes, cottonseed meal to 15,469 tonnes, cottonseed hull to 7,725 tonnes, and cotton linter to around 3,708 tonnes), up 4,700 tonnes over last week’s 26,200 tonnes by 17.94%; it also sees an increase of 20,800 tonnes over 10,100 tonnes of the corresponding period last year by 205.94%. (Operation rate of the corresponding period last year was relatively low, which was attributed to environmental protection inspection, limited raw material supply and down state of machines in most national mills, while this year’s cottonseed supply sees an increase over last year.) Operation rate in cottonseed oil mills this week is 8.69%, up 1.32% from last week’s 7.37%, and up 5.85% from 2.84% of the corresponding period last year. But operation rate in cottonseed oil mills is predicted to remain low before new cottonseed meal enters into market largely. 

      Fig.1: Cottonseed Operation Rate in China (2013-2018)

      Fig. 2: Cottonseed Crush Volume Weekly in China (2015-2018)