India's palm oil imports in January fell to their lowest in nearly 14 years as refiners turned to cheaper soyoil, driven by negative refining margins for palm oil, a leading trade body said on Wednesday.
Lower palm oil imports by India, the world's biggest buyer of vegetable oils, are likely to weigh on benchmark Malaysian palm oil prices and support U.S. soyoil futures.
Palm oil imports in January fell 45% from December to 275,241 metric tons, the lowest since March 2011, the Solvent Extractors' Association of India (SEA) said.
India imported an average of more than 750,000 tons of palm oil every month in the marketing year that ended in October 2024, according to the SEA.
Palm oil usually trades at a discount to soyoil and sunflower oil, but falling stocks have lifted its prices above rival oils, whose supplies are abundant.
Imports of soyoil in January increased 5.6% to 444,026 tons, the highest in seven months, and sunflower oil imports rose 8.9% to 288,284 tons, the industry body said.
Lower shipments of palm oil reduced the country's total vegetable oil imports in January by 14.8% to 1 million tons, the lowest in 11 months, it said.
The drop in vegetable oil imports over recent months lowered vegetable oil inventories to 2.18 million tons at the start of February, the lowest since April 2022, the SEA said.
Palm oil imports could slightly increase in February from the multi-year low hit in January but will remain lower than usual, said Rajesh Patel, managing partner at GGN Research, an edible oil trader.
He said soyoil imports could fall and sunflower oil could rise marginally in February.
India buys palm oil mainly from Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, and imports soyoil and sunflower oil from Argentina, Brazil, Russia and Ukraine.
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