Cooking oil imports by India, the world’s biggest palm oil buyer, rose for the first time in three months in August on lower domestic inventories and rising festival demand, an industry group said.
Shipments increased 9.7 per cent to 897,018 tonnes from 817,440 tonnes a year earlier, the first increase since May, the Solvent Extractors’ Association of India yesterday said. That compares with the median estimate of 900,000 tonnes in a Bloomberg survey of five processors and brokers this week. Imports climbed 19 per cent to 8.16 million tonnes between November and August, the group said.
Increased imports by India may help trim palm oil inventories in Malaysia, the world’s second-biggest producer, and stem a decline in futures in Kuala Lumpur. Price have fallen 19 per cent since climbing to a 13-month high in April on speculation that demand may wane due to a slowdown in China and the European debt crisis. “A lot of festivals are approaching in the next couple of months, which is when consumption is the highest,” said Prasoon Mathur, an analyst with Religare Commodities Ltd. “Supply of edible oil has been less in the domestic market.”
Palm oil for November delivery advanced 0.8 per cent to 2,936 ringgit ($965) a tonne on the Malaysia Derivatives Exchange in Kuala Lumpur. The most-active contract rose to 3,628 ringgit on April 10, the highest price since March 2011.
Festival demand
Crude palm oil imports climbed 13 per cent to 620,192 tonnes in August, while refined palm oil purchases declined 2.7 per cent to 79,486 tonnes, the extractors’ association said. Soybean-oil imports more than doubled to 110,758 tonnes in August from 52,265 tonnes a year ago, while sunflower-oil purchases slid 22 per cent to 68,900 tonnes, it said. Stockpiles, including those at ports and in the pipeline, totalled 1.55 million tonnes, as of September 1, the association said.