US soy processors typically shut down for a week or more in April or May to repair or upgrade facilities. The downtimes limit the availability of supplies. A slow pace of farmer sales of soybeans also resulted in relatively tight soymeal stocks.

However, demand has been light for months as many global buyers were focused on cheaper offerings out of South America.

The US Department of Agriculture said weekly soymeal export sales totaled 113,500 tonnes, within analyst estimates.

Chicago Board of Trade July soymeal futures were down $5.60 to $309.60 per ton at 10:16 a.m. CDT (1516 GMT). Soymeal eased with soybean futures as a weaker Brazilian currency enticed farmer selling there and made Brazilian supplies more competitive in global export markets.