According to Cofeed, on the week as of October 11th, details of soybean oil inventories and outstanding contracts are as follows:

 

The overall operation rate has fractionally rallied this week (Oct. 5-11) , but remains at a low level as some mills have yet resumed production after the holiday. Soybean crush at domestic mills totals 1,294,400 tonnes (meal 1,022,576 tonnes and oil 245,936 tonnes), up 138,700 tonnes, or 12.00%, from 1,155,700 tonnes in the previous week. Meanwhile, the operation rate (capacity utilization) is 35.70%, up 3.82 percentage points from 31.88% in the previous week. Soybean crush is predicted to return to a normal level in the coming two weeks, to 1.72 mln tonnes next week and 1.85 mln tonnes that following week. 

 

With rising operation rates in oil mills, soybean oil stocks also continue to increase, but the increment is relatively small. On the week as of Oct. 11th, China’s commercial inventory has totaled 1,353,630 tonnes, up 2,790 tonnes by 0.21% from 1,350,840 tonnes last week, up 23,630 tonnes by 1.78% from 1,330,000 tonnes last month, yet down 414,370 tonnes by 23.44% from 1,768,000 tonnes of the corresponding period last year. And the five-year average at the same period is 1,371,880 tonnes.

 

Fig.: China’s Soybean Oil Stocks in Recent Years