PALMOILMAGAZINE, KUALA LUMPUR – Palm oil imports into India rose by 3% in June compared to the previous month, reaching their highest level in the past six months.
The increase in imports was driven by rising demand from numerous distillers preparing for upcoming festivals and by cheaper prices of kernel oil compared to other competitors. Five traders shared this information with Reuters.
As the world’s largest importer of vegetable oils, India significantly increased its palm oil imports. This surge is expected to potentially bolster palm oil prices on the Malaysia Derivatives Exchange, which traded at their highest levels in over two months.
Traders reported that palm oil imports in June totaled 788,000 metric tons, marking the highest volume since December 2023.
Also Read: Palm Oil Imports Surge to Four-Month High in India for December 2023
“They buyers wanted to anticipated the demands from the next festival season. Besides, palm oil was traded hardly at $ 80 per ton or cheaper than other vegetable oils. This made it more interesting,” CEO Sunvin Group, Sandeep Bajoria said, as Palmoilmagazine.com quoted from Retail.com, Thursday (4/7/2024).
Bajoria continued, palm oil imports could increase up to 850.000 tons in July 2024. Crude palm oil (CPO) is offered at $ 985 per metric ton, including the insurance, and delivery (CIF) in August 2024 in India. Meanwhile, soyoil and sunflower oil were offered at about $ 1.065 dan $ 1.050 per ton, according to the traders.
Besides palm oil, sunflower oil in India got increased 14% to the previous month, it hit the record up to 467.000 tons. “Sunflower imports could be more than 500.000 tons in June but some tankers could not pull over by the port before the end of June,” Rajesh Patel, the partner of management in GGN Research vegetable oil broker and trader.
In the contrary, soyoil imports got decreased 16% in June 2024 to be 273.000 tons, according to the traders. Solvent Extractors’ Association of India (SEA) was predicted to publish official information about June 2024 imports in the midst of July 2024.
In a whole, the increasing palm oil and sunflower imports encouraged vegetable oil imports in the country up to 2% to be 1,53 million tons, the highest numbers since the past ten months. India purchased palm oil, namely from Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand, while importing soyoil and sunflower oil from Argentina, Brazil, Russia, and Ukraine. (T2)
