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

Operation rates decline as expected in China this week (Mar 20-26). Soybean crush at domestic mills totals 1,563,980 tonnes (meal 1,235,544 tonnes and oil 297,156 tonnes), down 4,630 tonnes or 0.30% from 1,568,610 tonnes last week. Meanwhile, operation rates (capacity utilization) are 44.10%, down 0.13% from 44.23% in the previous week. Soybean crush is expected to be 1.58 mln tonnes next week and 1.68 mln tonnes in week 14.

Soybean oil stocks continue falling this week as the output reduces following a decline in soybean crush. In the week ending Mar 26, China’s soybean oil commercial inventories total 673,100 tonnes, down 57,700 tonnes by 7.9% from 730,800 tonnes last week, down 174,300 tonnes by 20.57% from 847,400 tonnes month on month, and down 648,430 tonnes by 49.07% from 1,321,530 tonnes year on year. And the five-year (2016-2020) average at the same period is 1,157,500 tonnes.

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