Egypt's GASC bought sunflower oil $27.5/t more expensive than in August and refused to buy imported soybean oil

Egypt's GASC held an international and local tender for the purchase of vegetable oils on September 10, where it purchased a large batch of sunflower oil, albeit at a higher price than in August, but refused to purchase imported soybean oil due to the high price. Currently, soybean oil in Chicago is traded much cheaper than palm and sunflower oil, but buyers did not lower prices at the tender.

As with the previous tender on August 7, yesterday's auction saw 14 sunflower oil offers, but prices rose from $1050-1095 to $1080-1110/t C&F, while soybean oil offers increased from 8 to 9 and their prices increased from 1005-1092 to 1035-1090 $/t C&F. At the local tender, 2 batches of soybean oil were offered at the price of $1,072 and $1,090/t C&F.

As a result, GASC purchased 69.7 thousand tons of sunflower oil at a price of $1,045.5/t C&F ($27.5/t more expensive than on August 7), namely:

• 30,000 t at Viterra at a price of $1,047/t C&F with delivery on December 10-25,
• 15.7 thousand t at TOI Commodities at a price of $1,045/t C&F with delivery from November 20 to December 5,
• 12,000 t at Green Suppliers at a price of $1,045/t C&F with delivery from November 20 to December 5,
• 12,000 t at Aston Agro Industrial at a price of $1,047/t C&F with delivery on November 20 - December 5.

At the local tender, GASC purchased two lots of soybean oil of 6,000 t at a price of $992.76/t C&F, as Egyptian refiners did not agree to lower the price.

We remind you that earlier GASC acquired:

• 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.

Between tenders on August 7 and September 10, the average price of soybean oil delivered to buyers rose 5.5% to $945/t, while December soybean oil futures in Chicago fell 3.6 % to $872/t, and October palm oil futures in Malaysia rose by 7.9% to $885/t.