According to Cofeed, in the week as of August 7, details of soybean oil inventories and outstanding contracts in main domestic regions are as follows:

Some millers are facing a temporary soybean shortage as they are unable to discharge soybean vessels when berths are under strain at ports, and some are struggling with ballooning soybean meal inventories, so soybean crush has been slightly lower this week (Aug 1-7). Specifically, soybean crush at domestic mills totals 2,044,400 tonnes (meal 1,615,076 tonnes and oil 388,436 tonnes), down 17,200 tonnes or 0.83% from 2,061,600 tonnes last week. Meanwhile, operation rates (capacity utilization) are 58.88%, down 0.5% from 59.38% in the previous week. Soybean crush is predicted to increase to around 2.05 mln tonnes and 2.08mln tonnes in the coming two weeks, respectively.

Soybean oil inventories are slightly lower this week. In the week ending Aug 7, China’s soybean oil commercial inventories total 1,242,800 tonnes, down 3,150 tonnes by 0.25% from 1,245,950 tonnes last week, up 56,800 tonnes by 4.79% from 1,186,000 tonnes a month earlier, and down 134,400 tonnes by 9.76% from 1,377,200 tonnes of the corresponding period last year. And the five-year average at the same period is 1,355,500 tonnes. 

The amount of soybean oil in outstanding contracts totals 2,553,350 tonnes this week, a sharp rise of 134,500 tonnes or 5.56% from 2,418,850 tonnes last week.

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