Palm oil imports by India, the world’s largest buyer, probably declined in May as refiners and traders bought more soybean and sunflower oils amid forecasts for record global supplies. Futures in Kuala Lumpur fell.
Shipments of the main crude and refined palm oils dropped 12 percent to 668,000 metric tons, the median of estimates from six processors and brokers compiled by Bloomberg show. Purchases of crude soybean oil more than tripled to 186,000 tons, while sunflower imports more than doubled to 150,000 tons, the survey showed. The Solvent Extractors’ Association of India typically publishes the data around mid-month.
Soybean oil’s premium over palm, the world’s most-used cooking oil, narrowed to average $91 a ton this year from $244 a ton in 2013, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s spurred importers to stockpile soybean oil and cut purchases of palm, says Sunvin Group, a broker in Mumbai. World output of seven major oilseeds will be a record 487.5 million tons in the year to Sept. 30, according to Oil World in Hamburg.
“The soybean oil-palm oil gap was very narrow two months ago, encouraging commitments for soybean oil imports,” Sandeep Bajoria, chief executive officer of Sunvin, said by phone on June 9. “The gap has started increasing in the last two weeks and Indian importers have started looking at palm oil again.”
India imports more than 50 percent of its cooking oil demand, shipping palm from Indonesia and Malaysia, and soybean oil from the U.S., Brazil and Argentina.
Source:- bloomberg.com
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