Physical trading slowed to a crawl on Wednesday April 10. Bids and offers on soybean oil widened and dropped even further last week due to ample supply and diminished demand, particularly from the renewable diesel industry. A market source said that after last week’s rally in soybean oil futures, edible oils have become even more uncompetitive with significantly cheaper lower carbon intensity waste oils. 

“This is why you see the futures structure with a large contango near ‘full carry.’ In this environment, crushers are incented to push product to storage rather than hit the much cheaper cash bids,” the market source said. “Soybean oil stocks were significantly drawn down in 2023 due to high demand, and they are now in the process of backfilling stocks. Once that is complete, we will likely see aggressive basis offerings to keep product moving.”

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