-  Last week, soybean prices climbed 2.7% on the back of a report by US’ National Oilseed Processors Association, which said that soybean processing in the US climbed from 137.1mil a year ago to 153.8mil bushels in March 2014. Consensus was expecting 145.1mil bushels.

-  Soybean oil inventories in U.S stood at 2.0bil pounds as at end-March 2014 versus 2.8bil a year earlier and consensus estimates of 1.95bil.

-  Reuters quoted sources as saying that at least one soybean cargo defaulted by Chinese importers was sold by Marubeni Corporation. Marubeni is one of the biggest soybean exporters to China, shipping 15mil to 16mil tonnes a year. A source said that Marubeni could have incurred a loss of US$4mil on the default.

-  Archer Daniels Midland Co said that none of its shipments has been hit by defaults so far while Cargill and Bunge did not comment on the matter.

-  Shanghai JC also said that China has delayed or defaulted on as many as 23 soybean cargoes from US and South America. The delays were due to buyers struggling to get credit amid losses in processing beans.

-  Bloomberg reported that palm oil inventory at the ports in China stood at 1.14mil tonnes in the week ending 14 April, unchanged from the previous week. Inventory was 1.21mil tonnes a year ago and 890,000 tonnes two years ago.

-  Also, Bisnis.Com reported that East Kalimantan plans to restrict CPO exports so that the province’s processing industry can expand.

-  East Kalimantan Governor Awang Faroek Ishak said that 60% of the province’s CPO production should be processed internally while only 40% should be exported.

-  Last year, CPO production in East Kalimantan reached 1.4mil tonnes on the back of an acreage of one million hectares. FFB production amounted to 6.53mil tonnes in East Kalimantan in 2013.

-  Finally, independent cargo surveyors said that palm oil shipments from Malaysia rose by 6.7% to 8.6% in the 15 days of April compared with the same period in March.

-  India and US bought more palm oil, which compensated for the decline in shipments to European Union and China. Palm oil exports to India climbed 76.2% while shipments to China contracted by 39.3%. 

Source: AmeSecurities