Today (Feb. 24), the market for oilseeds and oils in China is shown as follows:

 

Cottonseed: Cottonseed is mostly unquoted today, while some prices for Xinjiang cottonseed are rising. Pastures are in rigid demand, but there is not much cottonseed circulating in the market. Due to the short supply, short-term cottonseed market may go strongly under the support. But it is difficult to transport Xinjiang cottonseed to inland under the impact of the novel coronavirus pneumonia epidemic. Besides, the epidemic has greatly hit catering industry, resulting in a sharp decline in cottonseed oil. And cottonseed meal price falls back from high levels. Moreover, oil plants in Xinjiang cannot resume production, so that some enterprises sell cottonseed in stock. Thus, cottonseed market may still moderately fall after totally resuming trading.

Oils: 

Summary: US soybean fell last Friday night over the spread of the novel coronavirus pneumonia across several countries, and oil futures fluctuate to decline on the Dalian Commodity Exchange today. In the spot markets, soybean oil drops by 30-100 yuan/tonne and palm oil down by 30-40 yuan/tonne in tepid trading. As mills crushed a total of 1.80 mln tonnes of soybeans last month, in addition to the thin trading, soybean oil stocks quickly rose to 1.20 mln tonnes, a weekly increase of 17%. Soybean crush is predicted to hit 1.80 mln tonnes and 1.87 mln tonnes in the next two weeks, respectively, so soybean oil stocks may jump above 1.40 mln tonnes in March. In the meantime, the demand is still extremely bad as most catering businesses have not opened, and some mills have been bothered with swelling stocks due to slow shipments. Moreover, palm oil stocks are also rising. With increasing pressure from its fundamentals, the oil market is predicted to keep range-bound with a weakening trend till the epidemic is under the effective control. Buyers can wait for the moment. 

Soybean oil: GB Grade I soybean oil is mainly priced at 5950-6200 yuan/tonne in domestic coastal areas, down by 30-150 yuan/tonne. (Tianjin traders 5950; Rizhao traders 6010; Zhangjiagang traders 6200; and Guangzhou traders 6000-6020). 

Palm oil: RBD palm olein is mainly priced at5520-5700 yuan/tonne in coastal areas, mostly down by 30-40 yuan/tonne. (Tianjin traders5680-5700, down 40; Rizhao traders not offered; Zhangjiagang traders5700; Guangzhou traders 5520-5530, down 30; and Xiamen yet offered). 

Imported rapeseed oil: Imported rapeseed oil goes down in price, of which it settles down 10-20 yuan at 7970-8170 yuan/tonne. (Fujian 7970; Guangdong and Guangxi not offered) The demand for oil products remains extremely low, as most catering businesses have not opened and schools have postponed the opening under the epidemic. With thin trading the market, rapeseed oil stocks went up slightly to 300,000 tonnes in coastal regions last week. And as mills picked up soybean crush to 1.80 mln tonnes due to huge supply, soybean oil stocks rose sharply by 17% to 1.20 mln tonnes last week. Therefore, the oil market has come under pressure. But rapeseed is still in short supply amid a stalemate between China and Canada, in addition to low crush, rapeseed supply also gets tightening in the spot market. Rapeseed oil market is more resilient than other oils, but it can hardly buck the trend. Buyers can wait for the moment.

Cottonseed oil: Cottonseed oil is mostly unquoted today, while some offered prices decrease by 150 yuan/tonne and some slump compared to before holiday. Being affected by the pneumonia epidemic, catering enterprises have yet to recover, so the demand is still weak in oils market and the trading for cottonseed oil is even tough. Moreover, most enterprises do not offer the price as a result of no deals. Besides, oils on Dalian Commodity Exchange fluctuate to fall back. On the spot market, soybean oil drops by 10-30 yuan/tonne and palm oil falls by 30-40 yuan/tonne. Consequently, cottonseed oil price goes down under the pressure. But the overall operation rate in oil plants stays at a low level now, which leads cottonseed oil to be resilient temporarily. With crush enterprises resuming the operation successively in the late period, cottonseed oil price may be at risk in going down. Buyers can take a wait-and-see attitude.