4 ships of soybean oil arrive from Brazil, Argentina
Four ships arrived with 52,000 tonnes of unrefined soybean oil from Argentina and Brazil at Chattogram port within four days.
The ships arrived at the port at a time when a crisis of bottled soybean oil had hit the domestic market.
In a bid to adjust the price, the government on Monday hiked the price of soybean oil by Tk 8 per litre.
The ships, however, left the ports of Brazil and Argentina for the Chattogram port around a month ago.
Traders said the ensuing temporary crisis of bottled soybean oil will dissipate soon. The import of soybean oil will increase more before Ramadan as the price has been adjusted, they added.
According to the Chattogram port, two ships - Ardmore Cheyenne and MT Dumbledore arrived with 21,500 tonnes of oil at the port on Saturday. Besides, another two tankers - MT Sunny Victory and MT Ginga Thresher reached the port’s maritime area with 30,600 tonnes of oil today, Tuesday.
Of the tankers, Ardmore Cheyenne left the Chattogram on Monday as oil had already been unloaded from the ship.
The MT Sunny Victory tanker carried the oil from Brazil while the remaining three ships arrived from Argentina.
Sources from the oil tanker companies told Prothom Alo that City Group, Meghna Group of Industries (MGI) and TK Group imported the oil.
Of the 52,000 tonnes of oil, TK Group has imported 25,000 tonnes, CityGroup 20,000 tonnes and MGI has imported 7,000 tonnes of unrefined soybean oil.
Speaking about this, TK Group director Shafiul Athar told Prothom Alo that the LCs for the import of the soybean oil were opened earlier upon the government’s assurance that the price would be adjusted. As the price has been adjusted, import of oil will increase.
He further expressed that there will not be any crisis of soybean oil during Ramadan.
He, however, added that the cost per tonne was USD 1,217.
Soybean oil is one of a few products whose price is fixed by the government.
Though the price of soybean oil was spiking for the last two months, the government did not adjust the price at home until Sunday. Instead, it reduced duty to keep the price stable.
As a result, the companies did not get any chance to raise the price of bottled soybean oil. But the price at the wholesale market fluctuates with that of the global market. The government also does not have much scope to monitor the price at the wholesale level.
As a result, the price of oil in the wholesale market recently rose by Tk 10 a litre than the rate set by the government.
In this context, the companies increased the supply of loose soybean oil rather than the bottled one in the market for the last few weeks. This created a crisis of bottled soybean oil in the market. As a result, the government adjusted the price.
As per the new rates, the price of bottled soybean oil will be Tk 175 per litre instead of Tk 167. The price of loose soybean oil has risen to Tk 157 from Tk 149.
The market value of the unrefined soybean oil imported by four tankers has also increased due to this price readjustment. The refined bottled soybean oil would be Tk 9.96 billion, which was Tk 9.5 billion before raising the price.
Traders said this imported oil will be kept at the customs house controlled tank terminal. The companies will take those paying duty and other tariffs at the port. The companies might take one to two weeks to refine the oil and market those.