Egypt's GASC bought sunflower oil at $139.5/t more expensive than in September and again refused to buy soybean oil

On October 15, the State Agency of Egypt GASC held an international tender for the purchase of 30,000 tons of soybean oil and 10,000 tons of sunflower oil for delivery on January 1-15, 2025. The tender was financed by the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation.

Compared to the September tender, the prices of the offers rose sharply due to the increase in the price of sunflower oil in Ukraine and the Russian Federation against the background of the reduction of the sunflower harvest.

12 (14 at the previous auction on September 10) sunflower oil offers at a price of $1229-1288/t C&F (by $150-178/t C&F higher than in September) and 8 (9) soybean oil offers at the tender were submitted to the tender $1145-1235/t C&F ( $110-145/t C&F is more expensive).

Ukrainian sunflower oil was offered by the Kernel company at $1,280/t C&F, and Russian sunflower oil by the Aston company at $1,250/t C&F.

As a result, GASC purchased only 50,000 tons of sunflower oil from Viterra for January 1-25 delivery at a price of $1,185/t C&F, which is $139.5/t higher than the September trade price. Although the prices of soybean oil offers were significantly lower than those of sunflower oil, GASC considered them too high and refused to buy soybean oil.

December soybean oil futures on the Chicago exchange are trading at $940/t (+8% since September 10), i.e. cheaper than palm oil.

Between tenders on September 10 and October 15, the average price of sunflower oil delivered to buyers rose 27% to $1,203/t, while December palm oil futures in Malaysia rose 13% to $998 /t.

We remind you that earlier GASC acquired:

• September 10 – 69.7 thousand tons of sunflower oil at a price of $1,045.5/t C&F,
• August 7 – 36,600 tons of sunflower oil at a price of $1,018/t C&F,
• July 18 – 20,000 tons of sunflower oil at a price of $1,013.99/t C&F,
• June 13 – 5.5 thousand tons of sunflower oil with immediate payment at a price of $1,073.9/t C&F,
• May 9 – 73,000 tons of sunflower oil at a price of $1,000/t C&F and 29,000 tons of soybean oil at a price of $994/t C&F with payment in 180 days,
• March 28 – 28,755 thousand tons of sunflower oil at a price of $930/t C&F and 18 thousand tons of soybean oil at a price of $1,050/t C&F,
• February 18 – 60.25 thousand tons of sunflower oil with payment in 180 days at a price of $920/t C&F, which was $20/t higher than the purchase price of the January 18 tender.