• Bloomberg quoted the China National Grain and Oils Information Center as saying that soybean crushers ordered 25 cargoes two weeks ago and 7 cargoes last week from Brazil for loading in September and October 2017. Purchases are picking up as domestic crushing margins have improved. Crushing margins at coastal plants are now between 40 and 160 yuan per tonne. A cargo carries about 55,000 to 60,000 tonnes of soybeans.

• It was also reported that the US Commerce Department has delayed the decision in the Argentine and Indonesia biodiesel case. The department was supposed to decide whether producers or exporters from Argentina and Indonesia are dumping biodiesel in the US. The Commerce Department has extended the deadline for issuing a preliminary determination from 30 August to 19 October 2017 at the request of the National Biodiesel Board Fair Trade Coalition.

• According to Reuters, Indonesia security companies are seeing a surge in demand for guards to protect oil palm plantations from thieves and land grabbers. An official with the Indonesian Security Industry Association said that some of the vast plantations are now being guarded by up to 200 people. The level of theft of FFB is quite high in oil palm estates. Around 15% of the 650 members of the Indonesian Palm Oil Association are expected to use private security services this year vs. 10% in 2016.

• Reuters also reported that Argentina's corn area will expand by 5% to 10% to a record of more than 5mil hectares in 2017F/2018F on the back of favourable weather conditions and attractive margins. Corn planting has been rising after the government eliminated export taxes. Although corn has a higher production cost compared with soybean, farmers are expected to plant more corn as soybean prices have been falling.

• According to Hindu Business Line, Ruchi Soya Industries has welcomed the recent hike in India's import duties on vegetable oils. Under the new import duties, the tax differential between crude and refined palm oil is 10 percentage points vs. 7.5 percentage points previously. A company official sees a shift from imports of RBD palm olein to crude palm oil with a positive impact on the refineries' utilisation rate. Average utilisation rate of Ruchi Soya's palm refineries may increase from a range of 45% to 50% to a range of 65% to 70%. The improvement in the utilisation rate may boost its top line by around 15% on an annualised basis. Ruchi Soya is of the largest food and agriculture companies in India.

• WorldGrain.com cited a USDA report as saying that Pakistan's soybean imports are expected to reach a record 1.6mil tonnes in 2016/2017F and 2mil tonnes in 2017F/2018F. The higher imports are a reflection of growing demand from the poultry sector and a tariff structure that favours soybean over soymeal. Imports of palm oil and soybean oil are expected to be lower as increased crushing of canola and soybean offset the need for edible oil imports.

• SGS and Intertek said that Malaysia's palm oil shipments fell by 12.8% and 14.6% in the first 15 days of August vs. the same period in July. According to SGS, China's palm oil imports dropped by 46.0% while palm exports to the EU slid by 45.7%. On a positive note, palm exports to India rose by7.5%. Intertek said that RBD palm olein accounted for 36.2% of Malaysia's palm oil shipments in the first 10 days of August while RBD palm stearin made up another 11.7%.

Source: AmInvest Research - 21 Aug 2017