According to Cofeed, in the week as of Feb 19, details of soybean oil inventories and outstanding contracts in main domestic regions are as follows:

Operation rates further decline in week 7 (Feb 13-19) that falls on the new year holidays. Soybean crush at domestic mills totals 329,000 tonnes (meal 259,910 tonnes and oil 62,510 tonnes), down 584,600 tonnes or 63.98% from 913,600 tonnes last week. Meanwhile, operation rates (capacity utilization) are 9.28%, down 16.48% from 25.76% in the previous week. Soybean crush is expected to pick up to 1.6 mln tonnes next week and to 1.95 mln tonnes in week 9.

Soybean oil stocks are fractionally higher this week under sluggish shipments during the festival, albeit a decline in soybean crush. In the week ending Feb 19, China’s soybean oil commercial inventories total 873,600 tonnes, up 37,000 tonnes by 4.42% from 836,600 tonnes from that before the festival (Feb 5), up 43,600 tonnes by 5.25% from 830,000 tonnes month on month, and down 154,000 tonnes by 14.99% from 1,027,600 tonnes year on year. And the five-year (2016-2020) average at the same period is 1,114,300 tonnes.

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