According to Cofeed, in the week as of Apr 9, details of soybean oil inventories and outstanding contracts in main domestic regions are as follows:

Operation rates continue a bigger-than-expected decline this week due to as mills are facing with a delay in soybean arrivals or swelling meal inventory. Soybean crush at domestic mills totals 1,355,200 tonnes (meal 1,070,608 tonnes and oil 257,488 tonnes), down 190,400 tonnes or 12.32% from 1,545,600 tonnes last week. Meanwhile, operation rates (capacity utilization) are 38.22%, down 5.36% from 43.58% in the previous week. Soybean crush is expected to rally from the low level to 1.58 mln tonnes next week and 1.70 mln tonnes in week 16.

Soybean oil stocks continue falling this week as the output reduces following a decline in soybean crush. In the week ending Apr 9, China’s soybean oil commercial inventories total 592,500 tonnes, down 30,100 tonnes by 4.83% from 622,600 tonnes last week, down 155,800 tonnes by 20.82% from 748,300 tonnes month on month, and down 435,200 tonnes by 42.35% from 1,027,700 tonnes year on year. And the five-year (2016-2020) average at the same period is 1,102,500 tonnes.

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