India shifts to palm oil as Black Sea sunflower oil shipments are disrupted

Indian importers are increasing palm oil purchases amid disruptions to sunflower oil supplies from the Black Sea region. One 20 thsd ton cargo of Russian sunflower oil has already been cancelled due to damage to port infrastructure, while around 60 thsd tons of shipments to India are facing delays.

Because of logistics problems, some Russian exporters are trying to reroute cargoes through the Baltic Sea, including the ports of St Petersburg and Ust-Luga. This route is more expensive and adds around 10 days to delivery times compared with Black Sea shipments.

India relies almost entirely on imports to meet its sunflower oil demand and requires around 250 thsd tons per month. Due to delays in shipments from Russia and Ukraine, October imports could fall to around 160 thsd tons, while domestic stocks are already tight after weaker purchases in previous months.

Against this backdrop, Indian buyers are turning more actively to palm oil. In just three days this week, the country booked around 150 thsd tons of crude palm oil for November–December delivery to both the east and west coasts.

Stronger demand from India could accelerate stock drawdowns in Indonesia and Malaysia and support palm oil futures in Kuala Lumpur. Disruptions to Black Sea sunflower oil supplies are therefore already reshaping the vegetable oil import mix of one of the world’s largest buyers.

Tags: logistics, sunflower oil, Black Sea region, India, palm oil