According to Cofeed, in the week as of Feb 26, details of soybean oil inventories and outstanding contracts in main domestic regions are as follows:

Domestic operation rates in oil mills rally from a low ebb with the completion of holidays this week (Feb 20-26), but the rally is smaller than the forecast for a lack of beans in some mills. Soybean crush at domestic mills totals 1,519,200 tonnes (meal 1,200,168 tonnes and oil 288,648 tonnes), up 1,190,200 tonnes or 361.76% from 329,000 tonnes last week. Meanwhile, operation rates (capacity utilization) are 42.84%, up 33.56% from 9.28% in the previous week. With the end of the vacation and imported soybeans put into mills, operation rates will continue rising next week and soybean crush is forecast to be 1.80 mln tonnes, bu as soybean arrivals reduce in March, some oil mills will suspend production and the crush may fractionally decline to 1.78 mln tonnes.

Soybean oil stocks decline a little bit this week as the delivery and the demand is recovering with the end of the festival, albeit a rise in soybean crush. In the week ending Feb 26, China’s soybean oil commercial inventories total 847,400 tonnes, down 26,200 tonnes by 3% from 873,600 tonnes last week, up 37,900 tonnes by 4.68% from 809,500 tonnes month on month, and down 350,400 tonnes by 29.25% from 1,197,800 tonnes year on year. And the five-year (2016-2020) average at the same period is 1,118,300 tonnes.

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