India's palm oil imports plunge as buyers shift to soyoil
Rewrites first paragraph with context, adds details and trader's comments from paragraph 2
By Rajendra Jadhav and Ashitha Shivaprasad
MUMBAI, Sept 12 (Reuters) -India's palm oil imports in August fell more than a quarter from a month ago, primarily driven by sufficient domestic stocks and negative margins that discouraged refiners from purchasing more of the tropical oil, a leading trade body said on Thursday.
Lower purchases by the world's biggest importer of vegetable oils could lead to higher stocks of palm oil in key producers Indonesia and Malaysia, weighing on benchmark futures FCPOc3.
India's palm oil imports fell 26% in August from July to 797,482 metric tons, the Solvent Extractors' Association of India (SEA) said in a statement.
Imports of soyoil rose 16% to 454,639 tons, while sunflower oil imports fell 22.5% to 284,108 tons, it said.
The drop in imports of palm and sunflower oils brought down the country's total edible oil imports by 17% to 1.53 million tons.
"Refiners are shifting to soyoil from palm oil, as palm oil has become more expensive for Indian buyers in comparison to soyoil," said a New-Delhi based dealer with a global trade house.
Palm oil typically trades at a discount to soft oils, but it is currently being offered at a premium of $40 per ton over rival soyoil for September shipments, according to SEA.
Palm oil imports also fell in August due to excessive buying in July, which led to a stock buildup with refiners, the dealer said.
Despite lower imports in August, vegetable oil stocks in the country rose to 2.93 million tons on Sept. 1, the highest in nine months, the trade body said.
In September, India's edible oil imports could fall because of lower buying of soyoil and sunflower oil, said Rajesh Patel, managing partner at edible oil trader and broker GGN Research.
"Palm oil imports could rise marginally to above 800,000 tons," he said.
India buys palm oil mainly from Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, while it imports soyoil and sunflower oil from Argentina, Brazil, Russia and Ukraine.
Reporting by Rajendra Jadhav, Ashitha Shivaprasad and Daksh Grover in Bengaluru; editing by Jason Neely and Emelia Sithole-Matarise
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