By Mei Mei Chu
BEIJING (Reuters) – China brought in 7.15 million metric tons of soybeans in November, less than expected due to a decrease in Brazillian arrivals, but the world’s biggest oilseed buyer remains set for record annual imports.
November arrivals dropped 9% from 7.92 million tons in the same month a year earlier, according to Reuters calculations of customs data released on Tuesday.
That was less than analysts’ estimates of 7.5-8.5 million tons.
The bigger-than-expected drop was due to a decrease in arrivals of old Brazilian soybeans, said Wan Chengzhi, an analyst at Capital Jingdu Futures.
In recent months, China has taken in larger-than-usual shipments of U.S. supply due to worries over the potential for renewed U.S.-China tensions hitting agriculture trade.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has said he will impose tariffs on Chinese imports, sparking concerns about a trade war and spurring farmers and traders to race to ship soybeans to China before Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20.
Most U.S. soybeans had been shipped to China in October, Wan said. “Considering the shipping time, U.S soybeans purchased in October will arrive in China around December, so import volume in December will be higher than that in November.”
Total soybean imports for the January-November period jumped 9.4% year-on-year to 97.09 million tons, the customs data showed.
China imported a record 100.31 million tons of soy in 2020.
The large arrival volumes have weighed on China’s most active soymeal futures on the Dalian Commodity Exchange, which have fallen since October to near their lowest since July 2023.
Crush margins in China’s key processing hub of Rizhao have also shrunk to a loss of about 274 yuan ($37.80) per ton of soybean processed from a profit of about 78 yuan ($10.70) in November.. ($1 = 7.2480 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Reporting by Mei Mei Chu; Editing by Kim Coghill and Savio D’Souza)
