-  Last week, Bloomberg reported that palm oil imports by India may have declined in May as refiners and traders bought more soybeans and sunflower oils at the expense of palm oil.

-  According to an industry player, the soybean-palm oil gap was very narrow in India two months ago, encouraging purchases for soybean oil.

-  He added that stockpiles of vegetable oils at the ports in India may total 1.35mil tonnes at the start of June 2014. Reserves fell to 1.17mil tonnes a month ago, the lowest since January 2011.

-  USDA (US Department of Agriculture) released its monthly demand and supply report last week. USDA has reduced its forecast of ending US soybean stocks from 330mil bushels to 325mil bushels for 2014F/2015F on the back lower carry-over inventory from 2013/2014F. The department has maintained its forecast of US soybean production at 3.6bil bushels for 2014F/2015F.

-  In spite of the downward revision in estimate, ending inventory of US soybean is still expected to rise by 160% from 125mil bushels in 2013/2014F to 325mil bushels in 2014F/2015F driven by improvements in yields and planting areas.

-  Also, USDA has increased its forecast of ending global soybean inventory from 82.2mil tonnes to 82.9mil tonnes for 2014F/2015F.

-  World soybean production is anticipated to rise by 5.7% from 283.8mil tonnes in 2013/2014F to 300mil tonnes in 2014F/2015F mainly underpinned by output increases of 10.5% in US and 4.0% in Brazil. Soybean production in Argentina is expected to remain flat.

-  World exports of soybean are forecasted to inch up 1.2% from 111mil tonnes in 2013/2014F to 112.3mil tonnes in 2014F/2015F.

-  In China, it was reported that authorities will conduct investigation into copper, iron ore and palm oil trading companies following financing issues at Qingdao Port. There have been allegations that a trading company took out multiple loans against the same collateral of copper and iron ore.

-  Finally, Biofuels Digest reported that the rollout of B5 in East Malaysia will be delayed by two months due to logistics and pricing issues. Oil and gas companies have not prepared the tanks while at the same time, suppliers are requesting for higher selling prices due to poor roads and infrastructure. 

Source: AmeSecurities