Falling US biodiesel production is likely to sharply push up US soyaoil exports in coming months as producers seek new markets, Hamburg-based oilseeds analysts Oil World said on Tuesday. "The decline in usage for biodiesel production will probably pressure domestic soyaoil prices, thus allowing larger than expected US soyaoil exports," Oil World said.
"We consider it likely that (soyaoil) shipments will reach 600,000 to 650,000 tonnes in April-September 2009, up from 516,000 tonnes a year ago." High vegetable oil prices compared to fossil oil have restrained US biodiesel output along with the European Union's decision in March to impose punitive import duties on US biodiesel because of claims it is produced with subsidies.
US domestic biodiesel consumption fell to 50,000-60,000 tonnes a month in January-April 2009, down from 90,000-105,000 tonnes monthly in 2008, Oil World said. US net biodiesel exports fell by 36 percent on the year in January-April 2009 to 270,000 tonnes, it said. This followed record exports of 1.27 million tonnes in January-December 2008 before the EU imposed the extra import duties.