According to Cofeed, in the week as of Dec 4, details of soybean oil inventories and outstanding contracts in main domestic regions are as follows:

As soybean meal pressure is not abating and mills in Rizhao, Shandong Province are required by local environmental authorities to cut down production under heavy pollution, operation rates for soybean crush declines as expected this week (Nov 28-Dec 4). Soybean crush at domestic mills totals 1,789,680 tonnes (meal 1,413,847 tonnes and oil 340,039 tonnes), down 53,600 tonnes or 2.9% from 1,843,280 tonnes last week. Meanwhile, operation rates (capacity utilization) are 51.11%, down 1.53% from 52.64% in the previous week. Soybean crush will rise again to 1.95 mln tonnes and 1.95 mln tonnes in the coming two weeks, respectively.

Soybean oil stocks further decline this week due to smaller output under lower soybean crush. In the week ending Dec 4, China’s soybean oil commercial inventories total 1,079,290 tonnes, down 71,710 tonnes by 6.23% from 1,151,000 tonnes last week, down 150,710 tonnes by 12.25% from 1,230,000 tonnes a month earlier, and up 82,940 tonnes by 8.32% from 996,350 tonnes of the corresponding period last year. And the five-year (2015-2019) average at the same period is 1,282,600 tonnes.

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