NOPA November soybean crush seen at 162.568mn bushels

CHICAGO: US soybean processors likely boosted their November crushing pace by 4.1 percent from a year earlier, with a record harvest providing ample fuel for the plants, traders and analysts said.

The National Oilseed Processors Association (NOPA), the largest US trade group for the industry, is expected to report that its members crushed 162.568 million bushels of soybeans in November, based on the average of estimates given by six analysts.

That would eclipse the previous November record of 161.211 million bushels, set in November 2014. It also would be the seventh biggest monthly crush ever.

Crush forecasts ranged from 159.300 million to 168.000 million bushels, with a median of 162.000 million bushels. A month ago, NOPA processors crushed 164.641 million bushels of soybeans.

The NOPA report is scheduled for release on Thursday at 11 a.m. CDT (1700 GMT).

Analysts also forecast that members' soyoil stocks as of Nov. 30 would rise to 1.381 billion lbs from 1.343 billion lbs at the end of October. The median was 1.397 billion lbs, with estimates ranging from 1.308 billion lbs to 1.450 billion lbs.

NOPA reported soyoil stocks stood at 1.477 billion lbs at the end of November 2015.

NOPA releases crush data on the 15th of each month or the next business day.