India's soyoil imports set for record high, palm oil at five-year low
MUMBAI (Reuters) -India's soyoil imports are poised to surge 60% year-on-year to a record high in 2024/25, as refiners boost purchases due to cheaper prices compared with rival palm oil, shipments of which are set to hit a five-year low, six dealers told Reuters.
Higher soyoil purchases by India, the world's biggest importer of vegetable oils, will support global soyoil prices, which have risen 31% so far this year, but weigh on benchmark Malaysian palm oil futures.
In the 2024/25 marketing year ending in October, soyoil imports are likely to jump to 5.5 million metric tons, from 3.44 million tons a year ago, according to estimates from dealers.
Palm oil imports in the year, meanwhile, are likely to fall 13.5% from a year ago to 7.8 million metric tons, the lowest since 2019/20, dealers said. Sunflower oil imports could fall 20% to 2.8 million tons, the lowest in three years, they said.
Higher soyoil imports will lift India's total edible oil imports in the year by 1% to 16.1 million tons, dealers estimated.
Palm oil traded at a premium for many months this year, which prompted buyers to replace it with soyoil, said B.V. Mehta, executive director of the Solvent Extractors' Association of India.
"Soyoil was cheap and plenty in stock, so it ended up grabbing palm oil's market share," he said.
Crude palm oil was commanding a premium of as high as $150 per ton over crude soyoil earlier this year due to tight supplies of the tropical oil in producer countries Malaysia and Indonesia.
Indian consumers are price-sensitive and had relied on palm oil because it was cheap. But its price rally prompted even large industrial buyers to look for alternatives, said Aashish Acharya, vice president at Patanjali Foods Ltd, a leading importer of edible oils.
While soyoil was initially being bought as a substitute for palm oil, it is now also replacing rapeseed oil, which has become more expensive due to a price rally in the past two months, said a Mumbai-based dealer with a global trade house.
India buys palm oil mainly from Indonesia and Malaysia, while it typically imports soyoil and sunflower oil from Argentina, Brazil, Russia and Ukraine.
This year, however, India is likely to buy more than 600,000 tons of soyoil from Nepal, a New Delhi-based dealer said.
Soyoil shipments from Nepal are tax-free under the South Asian Free Trade Agreement, which is encouraging buyers from eastern India to source soyoil from the Himalayan country, he added.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
15 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Walmart broadens 10% staff discount to include most grocery products, WSJ reports
(Reuters) -Walmart has expanded its 10% employee discount to nearly all of its grocery items, as the retail giant looks to retain workers, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing a letter from chief people officer to the company's staff. The 10% discount, previously available on products such as fresh produce and general merchandise, now extends to almost all grocery purchases at its stores and online, effective immediately, according to the report. Walmart, the largest private employer in the country, did not immediately respond to a Reuters' request for comment. Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data
Yahoo
15 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Why Nio Stock Jumped 42% in July
Key Points Nio is betting on its sub-brands Onvo and Firefly to drive growth. Early response to its Onvo L90 SUV has exceeded expectations. With Nio starting L90 deliveries, its sales should pick up pace. 10 stocks we like better than Nio › After a dismal first half of the year, Nio (NYSE: NIO) stock made a dramatic comeback in July and surged 42% in the month, according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence. Earlier in July, Nio reported a 17.5% year-over-year growth in deliveries for June. The Chinese electric-vehicle (EV) maker's recently launched sub-brands, Firefly and Onvo, contributed 40% to its June sales, and that's what caught everyone's attention. Although Nio launched its first Onvo model L60 late last year, its all-electric large three-row L90 SUV sparked unprecedented optimism last month. In the two weeks following the start of L90 pre-sales on July 10, Nio's stock shot up over 40% on the Hong Kong stock exchange. The optimism spilled over to the U.S., and Nio shares surged on the New York Stock Exchange as investors bet on a potential turnaround. Can Nio stock fly higher? Nio's deliveries of 24,925 vehicles in June was its highest so far this year. However, the company's July delivery numbers are already in, and it delivered only 21,017 vehicles in the month. That explains why Nio stock is down about 8% in August, as of this writing. Should investors be worried, though? I'd say no, because August should be a bigger month for Nio as it began deliveries of L90 on August 1. A local media report stated that Onvo president Shen Fei has set an internal target of delivering over 10,000 units of L90 in August alone. If Nio hits that number, the Onvo L90 will achieve the highest monthly sales among all of Nio's models in the company's history. Nio is aggressively ramping up production of L90 to fulfill deliveries. Meanwhile, Nio's other sub-brand Firefly, targeted to the mass market, is rapidly expanding overseas. Firefly launched its first namesake compact electric car in April this year to take on the BMW Mini and the Mercedes-Benz Smart. By the end of 2025, Nio expects Firefly to be available in 20 overseas markets, primarily across Europe. Nio will also launch its next-generation ES8 SUV in the coming months, which management believes should drive its Nio brand sales to 25,000 units per month. If management's numbers fall in place, Nio could soon be selling over 35,000 cars every month. Back in April, I believed Nio stock was incredibly cheap and a top value EV stock to buy. Given the company's push into mass markets and aggressive goals for L90, I see a lot more upside in the stock price. Should you invest $1,000 in Nio right now? Before you buy stock in Nio, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Nio wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $653,427!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,119,863!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 1,060% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 182% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of August 13, 2025 Neha Chamaria has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Why Nio Stock Jumped 42% in July was originally published by The Motley Fool Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Fast Company
17 minutes ago
- Fast Company
Vietnam wants to be the next ‘tiger economy.' Here's how
Beneath red banners and a gold bust of revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh in Hanoi's central party school, Communist Party chief To Lam declared the arrival of 'a new era of development' late last year. The speech was more than symbolic— it signaled the launch of what could be Vietnam's most ambitious economic overhaul in decades. Vietnam aims to get rich by 2045 and become Asia's next 'tiger economy' — a term used to describe the earlier ascent of countries like South Korea and Taiwan. The challenge ahead is steep: Reconciling growth with overdue reforms, an aging population, climate risks and creaking institutions. There's added pressure from President Donald Trump over Vietnam's trade surplus with the U.S., a reflection of its astounding economic trajectory. In 1990, the average Vietnamese could afford about $1,200 worth of goods and services a year, adjusted for local prices. Today, that figure has risen by more than 13 times to $16,385. Vietnam's transformation into a global manufacturing hub with shiny new highways, high-rise skylines and a booming middle class has lifted millions of its people from poverty, similar to China. But its low-cost, export-led boom is slowing and it faces a growing obstacle to its proposed reforms — expanding private industries, strengthening social protections and investing in technology and green energy — from climate change. 'It's all hands on deck. . . . We can't waste time anymore,' said Mimi Vu of the consultancy Raise Partners. The export boom can't carry Vietnam forever Investment has soared, driven partly by U.S.-China trade tensions, and the U.S. is now Vietnam's biggest export market. Once-quiet suburbs have been replaced with industrial parks where trucks rumble through sprawling logistics hubs that serve global brands. Vietnam ran a $123.5 billion trade surplus with the U.S. trade in 2024, angering Trump, who threatened a 46% U.S. import tax on Vietnamese goods. The two sides appear to have settled on a 20% levy, and twice that for goods suspected of being transshipped, or routed through Vietnam to avoid U.S. trade restrictions. During negotiations with the Trump administration, Vietnam's focus was on its tariffs compared to those of its neighbors and competitors, said Daniel Kritenbrink, a former U.S. ambassador to Vietnam. 'As long as they're in the same zone, in the same ballpark, I think Vietnam can live with that outcome,' he said. But he added questions remain over how much Chinese content in those exports might be too much and how such goods will be taxed. Vietnam was preparing to shift its economic policies even before Trump's tariffs threatened its model of churning out low-cost exports for the world, aware of what economists call the 'middle-income trap,' when economies tend to plateau without major reforms. To move beyond that, South Korea bet on electronics, Taiwan on semiconductors, and Singapore on finance, said Richard McClellan, founder of the consultancy RMAC Advisory. But Vietnam's economy today is more diverse and complex than those countries were at the time and it can't rely on just one winning sector to drive long-term growth and stay competitive as wages rise and cheap labor is no longer its main advantage. It needs to make 'multiple big bets,' McClellan said. Vietnam's game plan Following China's lead, Vietnam is counting on high-tech sectors like computer chips, artificial intelligence and renewable energy, providing strategic tax breaks and research support in cities like Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, and Danang. It's also investing heavily in infrastructure, including civilian nuclear plants and a $67 billion North–South high-speed railway, that will cut travel time from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City to eight hours. Vietnam also aspires to become a global financial center. The government plans two special financial centers, in bustling Ho Chi Minh City and in the seaside resort city of Danang, with simplified rules to attract foreign investors, tax breaks, support for financial tech startups, and easier ways to settle business disputes. Underpinning all of this is institutional reform. Ministries are being merged, low-level bureaucracies have been eliminated and Vietnam's 63 provinces will be consolidated into 34 to build regional centers with deeper talent pools. Private business to take the lead Vietnam is counting on private businesses to lead its new economic push — a seismic shift from the past. In May, the Communist Party passed Resolution 68. It calls private businesses the 'most important force' in the economy, pledging to break away from domination by state-owned and foreign companies. So far, large multinationals have powered Vietnam's exports, using imported materials and parts and low cost local labor. Local companies are stuck at the low-end of supply chains, struggling to access loans and markets that favored the 700-odd state-owned giants, from colonial-era beer factories with arched windows to unfashionable state-run shops that few customers bother to enter. 'The private sector remains heavily constrained,' said Nguyen Khac Giang of Singapore's ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute. Again emulating China, Vietnam wants 'national champions' to drive innovation and compete globally, not by picking winners, but by letting markets decide. The policy includes easier loans for companies investing in new technology, priority in government contracts for those meeting innovation goals, and help for firms looking to expand overseas. Even mega-projects like the North-South High-Speed Rail, once reserved for state-run giants, are now open to private bidding. By 2030, Vietnam hopes to elevate at least 20 private firms to a global scale. But Giang warned that there will be pushback from conservatives in the Communist Party and from those who benefit from state-owned firms. A Closing Window from climate change Even as political resistance threatens to stall reforms, climate threats require urgent action. After losing a major investor over flood risks, Bruno Jaspaert knew something had to change. His firm, DEEP C Industrial Zones, houses more than 150 factories across northern Vietnam. So it hired a consultancy to redesign flood resilience plans. Climate risk is becoming its own kind of market regulation, forcing businesses to plan better, build smarter, and adapt faster. 'If the whole world will decide it's a priority…it can go very fast,' said Jaspaert. When Typhoon Yagi hit last year, causing $1.6 billion in damage, knocking 0.15% off Vietnam's GDP and battering factories that produce nearly half the country's economic output, roads in DEEP C industrial parks stayed dry. Climate risks are no longer theoretical: If Vietnam doesn't take strong action to adapt to and reduce climate change, the country could lose 12–14.5% of its GDP each year by 2050, and up to one million people could fall into extreme poverty by 2030, according to the World Bank. Meanwhile, Vietnam is growing old before it gets rich. The country's 'golden population' window — when working-age people outnumber dependents — will close by 2039 and the labor force is projected to peak just three years later. That could shrink productivity and strain social services, especially since families — and women in particular — are the default caregivers, said Teerawichitchainan Bussarawan of the Centre for Family and Population Research at the National University of Singapore. Vietnam is racing to pre-empt the fallout by expanding access to preventive healthcare so older adults remain healthier and more independent. Gradually raising the retirement age and drawing more women into the formal workforce would help offset labor gaps and promote 'healthy aging,' Bussarawan said.
