Soybeans edge higher as traders hope for more Chinese buying

CANBERRA: Chicago soybean futures on Tuesday edged up towards last week’s 17-month high, as traders awaited for signs that China will buy more US beans.

Wheat futures slipped for a fifth consecutive session as falling Russian prices focused attention on plentiful global supply, and corn rose slightly.

The most-active soybean contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) was up 0.3% at $11.26-1/4 a bushel, as of 0338 GMT. Prices last week reached $11.69-1/2, the highest since June 2024, and are still up around 12% from mid-October.

Fuelling the rally were trade negotiations between Washington and Beijing that have restarted Chinese purchases from the United States.

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) says China bought nearly 1.6 million metric tons of US soybeans last week and a further 123,000 tons on Monday.

Two cargo vessels were en route to grain terminals near New Orleans on Monday to load with China’s first US soybean shipments since May, a shipping schedule showed. US officials say China has committed to buy 12 million tons from the United States.

The CBOT rally has made US beans more expensive than South American supplies, but Chinese state companies are now the captives of that government-to-government agreement and will have to buy despite the higher cost, said Tobin Gorey, founder of consultants Cornucopia.

“While those captive buyers are there, prices will stay up,” he said. “But once the market thinks they are done buying, prices should retreat a little bit to bring in others.”

The Trump administration expects to announce an aid package for US farmers within two weeks and a deal on Chinese soybean purchases, US Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said on Monday without providing further details.

US President Donald Trump also said on Monday he had spoken to his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping about topics including Ukraine, fentanyl, and US farm products.

In other crops, CBOT wheat was down 0.2% at $5.33-1/2 a bushel and corn rose 0.1% to $4.37-1/4 a bushel.

Both contracts reached multi-month highs last week. Wheat has fallen nearly 5% over the last five trading sessions.