According to Cofeed, in the week as of Mar 5, details of soybean oil inventories and outstanding contracts in main domestic regions are as follows:

Operation rates continue picking up in China this week (Feb 27-Mar 5), but the rise is smaller than the forecast due to a lack of beans after cargo unloading was disrupted by the port congestion in Rizhao Port, Shandong. Soybean crush at domestic mills totals 1,681,500 tonnes (meal 1,328,385 tonnes and oil 319,485 tonnes), up 162,300 tonnes or 10.6% from 1,519,200 tonnes last week. Meanwhile, operation rates (capacity utilization) are 47.42%, up 4.58% from 42.84% in the previous week. Following smaller soybean arrivals at ports in February and March and due to swelling meal inventory, soybean crush is expected to decline next week to around 1.58 mln tonnes, and then slightly pick up to 1.67 mln tonnes in week 11. The overall crush remains at a low level.

Soybean oil stocks continue declining this week on smaller-than-forecast soybean crush and as the market demand is recovering. In the week ending Mar 5, China’s soybean oil commercial inventories total 830,650 tonnes, down 16,750 tonnes by 1.98% from 847,400 tonnes last week, down 5,950 tonnes by 0.71% from 836,600 tonnes month on month, and down 513,550 tonnes by 38.2% from 1,344,200 tonnes year on year. And the five-year (2016-2020) average at the same period is 1,177,600 tonnes.

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