Note 1: Vegetable oils' shipments abroad from Argentina fell by 4.7% in 2017, compared to the previous year. They went from 6.17 million tons in 2016 to 5.88 million.
In 2017, shipments of vegetable oils abroad, from the entire national port complex, accumulated 5,879,409 tons. This amount implies a fall with respect to the previous year of 292,515 tons, but staying above the records of 2014 and 2015. The figures reported in this note compute the following oils: soybean (from Argentine, Paraguayan and Bolivian origin), sunflower and cotton.
These records are still far from the one reached in 2007. In that year, vegetable oils were shipped abroad for a total of 7.59 million tons, an amount that exceeds by 2 million tons the average of the shipments of the last 5 years. However, it should be mentioned that in that period, the large biodiesel factories in Argentina were just being installed, which today demand significant amounts of vegetable oils for conversion into biofuels. This product is currently exported by our country, at the same time that part of what is produced is used internally by the local automotive fleet and agricultural machinery. If this structural change is taken into account in the national productive framework and its impact on the markets, the volumes of vegetable oils shipped from recent years abroad -including 2017- can be considered as a great performance.
The slight drop observed in oil shipments, which is also replicated in the case of by-products, can be explained by several factors. The largest export of grains, where the quantity sent abroad grew in 2017 with respect to 2016 (it went from 47.8 Mt in 2016 to 48.2 Mt). The lower soybean and sunflower industrialization compared to 2016, due to the low gross processing margins that the local industry had (in 2017, 41.7 Mt of soybeans were processed against 44.4 Mt in 2016). To this must be added that the commercialization of soybeans in the physical market was lower in 2017 compared to the previous year, which is why the final stocks of the 2016/2017 campaign grew.
The decrease in shipments was carried out by the ports of the northern area of the Gran Rosario, located in San Lorenzo and Puerto General San Martín. In the ports of these localities, shipments of oils fell by 264 thousand tons compared to 2016, a decrease of 5% year-on-year.
The growth in maritime ports stands out, especially in Quequén, which increased it oil shipments by 342% compared to 2016. However, this increase has a very low impact on the national aggregates since its share in total shipments it does not reach 0.1 percent.
In 2017, the excellent relative participation of the Gran Rosario's ports ("Up River Parana") in the national shipments of vegetable oils continues. These terminals sent 5,736,082 tons abroad, which represents 97.6% of the total vegetable oils shipped from Argentine ports. This total includes oils of Argentine, Paraguayan and Bolivian origin. The shipments of these last two countries rose in 2017 to 793,852 tons, when in 2016 they had been 733,716 tons. There is an 8% year-on-year growth of the oil that comes down from Paraguay and Bolivia in a barge to the Gran Rosario for its subsequent loading in ships and final dispatch abroad. This is a reflection of the greater Paraguayan production, product of the great growth in the grinding capacity that occurred in recent years in that country, which would be captured by the port terminals of the Up River to send abroad.
This increase in merchandise of foreign origin is entirely due to what was done by Paraguay, which more overcompensated the drop in shipments of Bolivian soybean oil, which fell 14% year-on-year. Paraguayan soybean oil exported from Argentine ports continues to grow year by year in absolute terms, as well as in terms of its relative share in the total shipments departing from national ports.
Note No. 3: Renova and Terminal VI were the ports that shipped the largest volume of vegetable oils from Argentina last year. Together they embarked 41.3% of the national total.
In table N ° 3 the shipments of the different types of oils per terminal can be analyzed in the year 2017. It can be seen that Terminal VI of Puerto General San Martín, which belongs to Bunge and AGD, obtained the highest participation with a total of 1.197 million tons shipped, which were entirely from Argentine origin. The second place belongs to the terminal of Renova, owned by "Oleaginosas Moreno" and "Vicentín", also in Puerto General San Martín, with 1,067 million tons dispatched.
In third place was Cargill Quebracho in Puerto General San Martín with 745,018 tons. 63.6% of this volume dispatched belongs to soybean oil from Bolivia and Paraguay. The terminal of Quebracho is the most important in terms of oil shipment from external origin, this port refers to 59.7% of total vegetable oils originating in the bordering countries.
