Stricter Chinese checks leading to costly delays

A significant rise in China’s inspections of imported soyabean cargoes is leading to costly delays, traders quoted in a 12 May Reuters report have said.

China introduced new customs procedures in April for discharging soyabeans and clearing times would now take even longer due to increased sampling of cargoes to check for pests and residues, the sources said.

“It is a double whammy. Earlier, there were delays in getting import licences and, over the last few days, there are more stringent checks on cargoes,” a Singapore-based trader at an international trading firm was quoted as saying.

China – the world’s leading buyer of soyabeans with a 60% market share of purchases

– mainly imported cargoes from Brazil and the USA.

Slow clearing times at Chinese ports were pushing up spot soyabean meal prices, which had increased by almost 14% since the beginning of April, Reuters wrote.

At the time of the report, about 30 vessels carrying about 1.8M tonnes of soyabeans were waiting at anchorage off ports in China, the Singapore trader said, leading to mounting demurrage costs.

Demurrage costs – fees paid to ship owners for failing to offload cargo at an agreed time – can be up to US$20,000/day for a Panamax vessel carrying 60,000 tonnes of soyabeans, according to the report.

Global warming could reduce omega-3 in fish

fatty acids, such as omega-3s, as they create more flexible membranes that do not freeze up. At warmer temperatures, production shifts to saturated fatty acids that are stiffer and provide more structure.

Climate change could lead to a decline in omega-3 fats and higher toxin levels in ocean fish, according to a 26 May report on the Nautilus website.

The decline in omega-3 fats begins at the bottom of the food chain, as phytoplankton synthesise two types of fatty acids to build their cell membranes, according to aquaculture nutrition specialist Stefanie Colombo of Dalhousie University. At cooler temperatures, phytoplankton tend to produce more unsaturated

Oceanic fish relied mainly on plankton to get their omega-3s, and fish was our main dietary source of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) omega-3, which was linked to a range of health benefits including lower blood pressure, reduced inflammation and lower heart disease risks, the report said.

The global availability of DHA in fish could decline by 10%-58% by 2100, depending on global warming, according to forecasts by Colombo and her colleagues.

Court delays and drought threaten Vicentin rescue package

A deal to rescue leading global soyabean supplier Vicentin is at risk due to court delays and Argentina’s most severe drought on record, Bloomberg reported on 2 June.

The bankruptcy of Vicentin SAIC more than three years ago disrupted oilseed trading in Argentina, the leading exporter of soyabean meal and oil, the report said. Following a period of instability, which included a failed nationalisation bid, the company seemed to have secured its future after creditors and crop suppliers agreed to restructure US$1.3bn of debt, with a consortium led by Glencore-backed Viterra and global agribusiness giant Bunge set to take over operations, Bloomberg wrote.

However, a combination of drawn-out proceedings in a provincial bankruptcy court and severe drought in the South American country had put the deal at risk, Estanislao Bougain, a Vicentin board director, was quoted as saying.

Judge Fabian Lorenzini was taking much longer than usual to approve the restructuring, according to Bougain.

If the delays continued, the company’s takeover could be at risk, according to Vicentin.

“The drought means companies are no longer bringing their grain to Vicentin,” Bougain added.

“We’re running low on work but our overheads are still there.”

EU: The EU will require aviation fuel suppliers to supply a minimum share of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) at European airports, starting at 2% of overall fuel supply by 2025, and increasing to 70% by 2050, according to a statement on its official website on 26 April.

The mandate is part of a political agreement reached on the REFuelEU Aviation proposal requiring the use of SAF. It covers biofuels, recycled carbon fuels and synthetic aviation fuels (e-fuels). Fuels made from food and feed crops are excluded.

Once adopted by the European Parliament and the European Council, the new legislation would be published in the Official Journal of the European Union and take immediate effect.

NETHERLANDS: Glob- al oil giant Shell is set to make the first deliveries of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) in 2025 from its Shell Energy and Chemicals Park Rotterdam plant, S&P Global reported on 4 May.

The 820,000 tonnes/year plant used hydro-processed esters and fatty acids (HEFA) to produce biofuels by refining vegetable oils, waste oils or fats using hydrogen, S&P Global wrote.

Shell said it aimed to produce around 2M tonnes/ year of SAF by 2025 and have at least 10% of its global aviation fuel sales comprising SAF by 2030.