Canadian canola processors crushed over 820,500 metric tons of the oilseed in November, up 18 percent from October’s volume and up 2 percent from November 2017. Although crush and oil and meal production have slowed down since summertime’s blowout pace, and Sep-Oct processing volumes were lower year over year, if December crush is around last year’s level, 2018’s will beat 2017’s record by about 1 percent.
U.S. imports of canola oil have been weak all year, especially imports of crude canola oil. Jan-Oct crude imports were just 263,000 MT, compared to the 400,000-plus MT we saw for those months in 2015-2017. U.S. use of canola oil for biodiesel production is down notably this year, displaced by inexpensive soybean oil.
Jan-Oct 2018 imports of refined canola oil totaled 1.2 million metric tons, 4 percent lower than Jan-Oct 2017 but 5 percent higher than those months in 2016.
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