India's palm oil imports rose by 5.34 per cent to 6,42,562 tonnes during March 2016 compared to the previous month on account of sluggish global prices, industry body Solvent Extractors Association said today.
India, the world's leading vegetable oil buyer, purchased 6,09,939 tonnes of palm oil in February this year.
Palm oils make up for 65 per cent of the country's total vegetable oil imports. The annual oil demand is around 17-18 million tonnes and 60 per cent of this is met through imports.
"The alarming increase in import of RBD Palmolein, seriously hurting the domestic refining industry. ...This situation has arisen due to the fact that currently the landed cost of RBD palmolein (finished product) is lesser than Crude Palm Oil (raw material)," the association said in a statement.
"The domestic refining industry is facing severe crisis of under utilisation of capacity and is on the verge of closure and justify to increase in import duty difference between crude and refined vegetable oils from 7.5 per cent to 15 per cent," it said.
Among palm oil products, import of refined palm oil (RBD Palmolein) rose to 2,08,376 tonnes in March 2016 from 1,77,806 tonnes in the previous month, it said. In March 2015, RBD Palmolein imports stood at 51,576 tonnes.
The shipments of crude palm oil (CPO) increased marginally to 4,28,856 tonnes in March from 4,23,135 tonnes in the previous month of 2016, while the import of crude palm kernel oil (CPKO) declined to 5,330 tonnes from 8,998 tonnes in the said period.
Among soft oils, import of soyabean oil fell to 3,21,975 tonns in March from 3,80,121 tonnes in the previous month, but sunflower oil shipments rose to 1,84,162 tonnes from 87,028 tonnes, while rapeseed oil shipments were 26,863 tonnes in the said period.
The country's total vegetable oil imports increased by 12 per cent to 11,89,765 tonnes in March this year from 10,62,781 tonnes in the year-ago period.
At March-end, there was over 23.10 lakh tonnes of stock at ports and in pipelines, which can meet the demand for 42 days. The country's monthly requirement is 1.65 million tonnes.
India imports palm oil mainly from Indonesia and Malaysia and a small quantity of crude soft oils, including soyabean oil from Latin America. Sunflower oil is imported from Ukraine and Russia.
