February 16, 2012

China's February soy imports seen 14% lower

Compared with January, the soy imports of China was possibly 14% lower at 3.97 million tonnes in February, according to the China National Grain and Oils Center (CNGOIC) on Wednesday (Feb 15).

However, the estimated imports represent a jump of 71% year on year as the Lunar New Year holiday last year was in February when many processing mills closed business during the holiday.

The projection is very close to 3.71 million tonnes earlier forecast by the Ministry of Commerce.

The think-tank also predicted that the country's soy imports would reach 12.6 million tonnes in the first quarter of this year.

Meanwhile, CNGOIC lowered estimate for China's soy imports in the crop year of 2011-12 beginning from October 1 by one million tonnes to 55 million tonnes.

China imported 52.3 million tonnes of soy in the crop year of 2010-11.