InfoSAWIT, JAKARTA - In the past few years, China substituted its palm oil import composition such as, the country mostly imported shortening to substitute RBD Palm Olein (PL) in food production. It is predicted that the country imported about 600 thousand tons shortening in 2022 for the goal. But Desmond Ng told, the numbers were not enough to compensate the decreasing PL imports. It meant palm oil demands from food sector got lower about 620 thousand tons in 2022.
China decreased RBD Palm Stearin (PS) import about 10,9% or 188 thousand tons compared to the previous year. If considering hydronated vegetable oil imports in the country in 2022, the facts were that oleochemical materials were decreasing not too much.
Custom and Tax Agency of China reported that hydronated vegetable oil imports increased in 2021 and significantly increased in 2022. In 2021 hydronated vegetable oil import twice increased from the previous year (264.900 tons v 114.900 tons), while in 2022 it increased about 285.000 tons to 264.900 tons in 2021.
Desmond Ng continued, hydronated and shortening from vegetable oil in China had something to do with duty structure changes of palm oil product from Indonesia in 2021 that supported palm oil downstream product export with competitive price. This included hydronated shortening and stearin (hydrogenated palm stearin/HPS). In the same time HPS imports in China were free from duty that was managed by ASEAN-China FTA (ACFTA) compared to 2% for PS (duty of shortening which was 0% with ACFTA agreement since 2006). (T2)
