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On Monday September 22, the government eliminated the export taxes of oilseeds, grains and products until October 31 or until export license applications reached an amount equivalent to $7 billion. On Wednesday September 24, Argentina announced it was going to reapply the export taxes after reaching the $7 billion mark.
Sources in the Indian market estimated that 200,000-400,000 tonnes of soyoil were traded between Tuesday September 23 and Wednesday on a CFR West Coast India basis for October, November and December loading; November and December loading; and January, February and March loading.
Fastmarkets assessments showed that prices for October loading fell by $52.50 per tonne between Friday September 19, before the suspension of the export taxes was announced, and Wednesday, when the government announced that the taxes would return to previous levels.
Late on Wednesday, prices had already started to rebound, with small volumes of soyoil for loading in October, November and December trading at $1,135 per tonne, followed by additional trades at the same level on Thursday.
This recent flurry of buying largely reflected an opportunity created by the change in the export tax in Argentina, several market sources said during the largest vegoils conference in the world, Globoil, in India.
With the volume bought during the zero tax periods, India now has around 1 million tonnes of soyoil coverage for the October-November-December (OND) period, Anilkumar Bagani, commodity research head at Sunvin Group, told Fastmarkets.
“Such a high coverage for this specific period is a record volume and it results in less buying of other competing oils, as soyoil is still at a competitive offering,” he said.
A broker based in India told Fastmarkets that the country is well-covered after recently acquiring volumes from Argentina, but if soyoil prices remain competitive versus palm oil, there might be space for more imports as the beginning of the harvest of local crops got delayed after extended rains.
Another local broker said India could buy more soyoil depending on the level at which prices stabilize after the country reinstated export tariffs.
“There is still around 250,000 tonnes India can buy, depending if palm remains less competitive,” they added.
Data from the Argentine government showed that more than 1.521 million tonnes of soyoil were registered for export during the period without export taxes.
Argentina is the world’s largest exporter of soyoil, while India is the largest importer.
According to data from the Solvent Extractors’ Association of India, soyoil is the second largest category of oil imported by India after palm oil, with 3.890 million tonnes imported between November 2024 and August.
Soyoil has gained market share over palm and sun oil imports so far this season. Argentina was the major source of India’s soyoil imports in 2024, with 2.385 million tonnes, or 61% of the total imports.
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