US import duties on vegetable oils will change supply and demand

U.S. President Trump’s plans to impose across-the-board import duties could reduce or end the supply of imported vegetable oils and fats to the States, prompting the U.S. oil-extraction industry to build new plants and expand capacity. U.S. farmers are concerned that the U.S. protectionist stance will limit their access to China’s biggest soybean buyers, Reuters reported. Stiff global competition could cut into the incomes of farmers who just harvested the second-largest soybean crop in U.S. history, while soybean prices are hovering near four-year lows. Analysts said that if Trump’s duties trigger retaliation from global buyers, large soybean processors such as Bunge Global and Archer-Daniels-Midland Co could benefit from larger and likely cheaper supplies of beans for processing domestically. Capacity expansion plans stalled last year as the U.S. market was overwhelmed by cheap global diesel feedstocks such as used cooking oil (UCO) from China, lard from Brazil and rapeseed oil ...