India’s palm oil imports in August surged by about 84% from a month before, according to shipping data and advance estimates seen by S&P Global Platts, making it the largest single month purchase of palm oil in the current marketing year 2020-21 (November–October).
Estimates based on shipping data showed that India imported about 850,000 mt of palm oil products in August compared to the 465,606 mt imported in July. However, some analysts have pegged the number higher.
India’s import numbers for August could be closer to 875,000 mt Marcello Cultrera, institutional sales manager and broker at Phillip Futures in Kuala Lumpur told Platts.
“Historical low stock levels combined with friendlier import duty boosted India’s imports of palm oil in August,” Aditya Jeripotula, head of research at TransGraph Consulting told Platts.
Jeripotula said that while August 2021 imports appear as a big jump over July, they are close to the five-year average for India’s August month imports of around 835,000 mt.
India — the largest importer of vegetable oils in the world — reduced the import duty on CPO till the September-end to lower prices of edible oils for retail customers. The country has also removed restrictions on imports of refined palm oil and olein till the end of the year.
In August Indian buyers purchased about 600,000 mt of Crude Palm Oil (CPO), sources told Platts. Refined Bleached and Deodorized (RBD) palm oil imports rose to about 170,000 mt in August from 13,897 mt in July while inedible palm kernel oils and processed palm products accounted for the rest of the imports.
Official import data from the Solvent Extractors’ Association of India (SEA) will be released on Sept. 15.
Traders are expecting demand from India will increase as the festival season draws news around September and October, the RHB Futures Dealing palm oil team said.
Veg oil imports
Including palm oil, India’s total vegetable oil imports for August are expected to be higher than July and between 1.04 million mt to 1.1 million mt, sources told Platts.
Of this, crude degummed soybean oil imports are around 175,000 mt and crude sunflower oil imports are at 65,000 mt. In July India imported 379,892 mt of soybean oil, as the price differential between soybean oil and palm oil thinned SEA data showed.
India imports about 15 million mt of vegetable oils annually, of which palm oil accounts for 8 million-9 million mt.
On Aug. 20 India cut its import duty on crude soybean oil and sunflower oil by 7.5% to 30.25%. Analysts expect this to push demand for soybean and sunflower oil marginally as international veg oil prices remain high.
Source: Platts