As of this Friday (Mar. 20), edible palm oil stock totals 821,600 tonnes at domestic ports, down 2.9% from 846,600 tonnes a week earlier; down 122,900 tonnes or 13.01% from 944,500 tonnes the same period last month; up 60,500 tonnes or 7.9% from 761,100 tonnes the same period last year. Meanwhile, industrial palm oil stock at domestic ports totals 148,850 tonnes, down 9,300 tonnes or 5.9% from 158,150 tonnes last week.

There are less boatloads of palm oil arriving at ports this week. Besides, palm oil slides slightly, while soybean oil mostly moves higher. As of this Friday, spot grade one soybean oil prevails at 5,500-5,550 yuan/tonne in coastal areas and mostly increases by 150-230 yuan/tonne compared to last Friday, enlarging the price spread between soybean oil and palm oil. And the price spread is 685 yuan/tonne, extending by 122 yuan/tonne from 563 yuan/tonne last week. As catering businesses gradually recover, the demand for oils is turning better. And enterprises start making replenishment successively after digesting channel inventories, so palm oil trading volume expands this week and totals 65,410 tonnes, up 27,510 tonnes or 72.6% than 37,900 tonnes the previous week. Therefore, domestic edible palm oil stocks continue to drop this week. Additionally, China’s buyers have bought not many cargoes of palm oil due to the poor import profit, so edible palm oil stocks are likely to slide in later period on the whole. 

Region /Port	Edible Palm Oil Stocks（0'000 mT）					Industrial Palm Oil Stocks
	W12	W11	Change	M-O-M	Y-O-Y	W12	W11	Change
Tianjin Port	9.75	9.5	0.25	-32.40%	-31.60%	2.3	2.5	-0.2
Hebei	0.2	0.4	-0.2	-78.70%	-55.50%	0	0.1	-0.1
Shandong Port	3.18	3.6	-0.42	0.90%	-26.05%	0.855	1.025	-0.17
East China	28.5	31.3	-2.8	-18.40%	17.20%	9	9.4	-0.4
Guangdong	32.62	33.18	-0.56	-3.30%	28.20%	2.48	2.61	-0.13
Guangxi	3.81	2.18	1.63	9.50%	85.80%	0.25	0.18	0.07
Fujian	4.1	4.5	-0.4	7.90%	-22.60%	0	0	0
Total：	82.16	84.66	-2.5	-13.01%	7.90%	14.885	15.815	-0.93

Fig.: China's palm oil stocks in recent years

According to the latest statistics by Cofeed, the estimate of import volume for March this week is 320,000 tonnes and flat from last week (RBD palm olein 200,000 tonnes and industrial palm oil 120,000 tonnes); that for April is 400,000 tonnes (RBD palm olein 280,000 and industrial palm oil 120,000 tonnes) and increases by 80,000 tonnes compared to last week; that for May is 320,000 tonnes (RBD palm olein 200,000 and industrial palm oil 120,000 tonnes) unchanged with last week.

III. Margins and Shipments