India’s January palm oil imports drop to 3-month low

India’s palm oil imports in January dropped more than 12% from a month ago to a three-month low as negative refining margins for crude palm oil (CPO) prompted refiners to switch to rival soy oil, a leading trade body said February 12. Lower purchases by the world’s biggest importer of vegetable oils could keep palm oil inventories elevated in top producers Indonesia and Malaysia, and weigh on benchmark futures FCPOc3. Palm oil imports in January fell about 12.4% from the previous month to 782,983 metric tonnes, the Mumbai-based Solvent Extractors’ Association of India (SEA) said in a statement. Imports of soy oil rose 23.7% to 188,859 tonnes, while those of sunflower oil were down about 15.6% at 220,079 tonnes as the oil became expensive because of higher freight rates following Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping, the SEA said. The lower palm oil and sunflower oil imports pulled down India’s total vegetable oil imports by 8.4% to 1.20 million tonnes, it said. Negative refining ...