According to Cofeed, in the week as of July 31, details of soybean oil inventories and outstanding contracts in main domestic regions are as follows:

As crushing plants pick up operation rates higher than expected with incoming soybeans this week (Jul 25-31), soybean crush at domestic mills totals 2,061,600 tonnes (meal 1,628,664 tonnes and oil 391,704 tonnes), up 106,300 tonnes or 5.4% from 1,955,300 tonnes in the previous week. Meanwhile, operation rates (capacity utilization) are 59.38%, up 3.06% from 56.32% in the previous week. Soybean crush is predicted to continue increasing to around 2.08 mln tonnes and 2.12 mln tonnes in the coming two weeks, respectively.

In spite of a pickup in soybean crush, soybean oil stocks increase very slightly. It can be noted that stockpiles even decline in Shandong, for many local crushers are in downtime. In the week ending July 31, China’s soybean oil commercial inventories total 1,245,950 tonnes, up 9,700 tonnes by 0.78% from 1,236,250 tonnes last week, up 105,950 tonnes by 9.29% from 1,140,000 tonnes last month, yet down 167,350 tonnes by 11.84% from 1,413,300 tonnes of the corresponding period last year. And the five-year average at the same period is 1,363,400 tonnes. 

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