February 9, 2011

China's 2010-11 soy imports to lift on-year

China's soy imports in 2010-11 will rise sharply to 54.5 million tonnes from 46.82 million tonnes in 2009-10, Hamburg-based oilseeds analysts Oil World forecast Tuesday (Feb 8).

China's 2010-11 soy crushings are estimated by Oil World at 52.7 million tonnes, up from 46.50 million tonnes in 2009-10 as the country's economic growth spurs demand for soyoil and soymeal.

"In our revised estimate we expect Chinese consumption of soyoil and meal at new records of 10.9 million tonnes and 42.4 million tonnes in 2010-11 (Oct/Sep), representing increases of 12% and 16% from last season," it said.

China's soy stocks are believed to have risen to record levels in the last two to three months because of recent high imports and this is likely to halt new soy shipments in the coming weeks, it said.

High December 2010 Chinese soy imports of 5.43 million tonnes are likely to fall to 4.5-4.6 million tonnes in January and 2.8-2.9 million tonnes in February, it added.

It forecasts a recovery in March soy imports to 3.3-3.5 million tonnes.