Today (Dec 14), the market for oilseeds and oils in China is shown as follows:

Oilseeds:

Imported soybean: U.S. Gulf soybeans are offered lower by 150 CNY at 4,450-4,700 CNY/tonne at Shandong ports today. Local authorities have relaxed commodity inspections at ports, and soybean imports from the U.S. are substantial, so the supply of imported soybeans will be increasing at ports. Besides, Chinese importers are actively buying up soybeans from the U.S. and Brazil, which will also improve supply in domestic market. Nevertheless, domestic purchasers tend to choose domestic soybeans and have little appetite for imported soybeans. Overall, short-term imported soybean market is predicted to go with a weakening trend.

Cottonseed: Cottonseed prices decline by 0.01-0.02 CNY/kg in China today. The delivery of cottonseed is still under impact of the COVID-19 outbreak in Xinjiang. Moreover, cottonseed crushing mills keep facing losses as cottonseed price remains too high, and some mills in Shandong have suspended operation due to environmental warning. Hence, they have strong intention to force price down. But cottonseed output this year is lower than the previous year and cottonseed oil prices stay firm, which supports cottonseed market. It is expected that cottonseed price will fluctuate narrowly in a short term.

Oils: 

Summary: U.S. soybean futures rose last Friday on tightening supplies of U.S. soybeans and dry weather in northern part of Brazil. Oils futures open low but move higher on China’s Dalian Commodity Exchange today. In the spot markets, soybean oil goes up 20-100 CNY/tonne and palm oil mostly down 20 CNY/tonne, in tepid trade.

Soybean crush rose 9% to 1.95 mln tonnes in China last week and will continue climbing in the coming two weeks and possibly to more than 2 mln tonnes. But soybean oil stocks fell 4% to 1.04 mln tonnes as buyer have commenced stocking up packaging oils for the festival season and with the support of state purchases. Moreover, palm oil and rapeseed oil stocks remain low in China. Therefore, fundamental bode well for the oils market in the first half of 2021, and the overall market is predicted to keep an uptrend in fluctuation. But investors always took profits recently before Dalian soybean oil futures were to hit the 8,000 level, which led to strong fluctuation. In the short run, it is necessary to avoid frequent fluctuations.

Soybean oil: GB Grade I soybean oil is mainly priced at 8,270-8,370 CNY/tonne in domestic coastal areas, a rise of 20-100 CNY/tonne. (Tianjin traders 8270-8280; Rizhao traders 8330; Zhangjiagang traders 8370; and Guangzhou traders 8320).