China's soybean imports fall 7.7% in September from a year earlier

BEIJING: China, the world’s largest soy buyer, imported 11.88 million metric tons of soybeans in September, down 7.7% from the same month last year, data from the General Administration of Customs of China showed.

Soybean imports in September fell from 12.87 million tons a year earlier and were down 2.1% from 12.14 million tons in August.

From January to September, soybean arrivals in the world’s biggest buyer totalled 86.08 million tons, the data showed.

The 7.7% fall from last year mainly reflected a high base a year earlier, when Chinese buyers stepped up purchases of South American soybeans amid trade tensions between Beijing and Washington, said Rosa Wang, an analyst at Shanghai JC Intelligence.

“This year, Brazil’s sales of old-crop soybeans have progressed rapidly, with fewer outbound shipments available in September.

The new season for US soybeans has just started harvesting, and the volume available for shipment has not yet increased,“ she said.

China has now passed the halfway mark toward fulfilling its commitment to buy 25 million tons of US soybeans, a deal the White House said was reached last October.

Buying is likely to decline in the months ahead due to weak animal feed demand and negative crush margins, leaving little room for US cargoes as they were excluded from proposed tariff relief after last month’s Washington summit.

China’s soybean arrivals are expected to average around 9.5 million tons per month in the fourth quarter, Cai Hongli, deputy general manager of market research at COFCO Oils, said at an industry conference in Dalian on Tuesday.