Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) soyabean futures fell to a more than two-month low on Thursday, as traders shrugged off news about a small US soyabean sale to China. US soyabean futures dropped sharply after US President Donald Trump said on Twitter he would impose an additional 10% tariff on $300 billion worth of Chinese imports starting September 1.
CBOT August soyabeans declined 17 cents to $8.47 a bushel after trading as low as $8.42-3/4 a bushel earlier in the day, the lowest price since May 24. New-crop November soyabeans closed down 16-1/4 cents, settling at $8.52-3/4 a bushel after also hitting the lowest price since May 24. CBOT August soyameal slid $5.00 to $293.20 per short ton, and August soyaoil slipped 0.07 cent to settle at 27.68 cents per pound.
In a string of tweets, Trump faulted China for not following through on promises to buy more American agricultural products and personally criticized Chinese President Xi Jinping for failing to do more to stem sales of the synthetic opioid fentanyl. The US Department of Agriculture on Thursday confirmed private sales to China of 68,000 tonnes of soyabeans for the 2019/20 marketing year, the first such purchase by a private buyer since the trade war between the world's two largest economies broke out more than a year ago.
It was the first new soyabean purchase by China since a 544,000-tonne sale was announced in late June, and the first since Beijing offered to exempt five private crushers in the country from 25% import tariffs on US beans arriving by the end of the year. USDA said that export sales of US soyabeans totaled 448,600 tonnes. Analysts had been expecting soya export sales in a range from 100,000 tonnes to 700,000 tonnes.
Brazil - the world's largest soyabean exporter - could see record corn and soya harvests in the 2019-20 season dependent on good weather, as farmers are expected to broaden plantings, Datagro Consultoria said on Wednesday.