April 12, 2012

 

China's soy imports rise on feed mills demand

 

 

The quarterly soy imports of China jumped more than 21% from last year, with March recording the highest monthly cargo so far this year, on rising demand from the local animal feed sector.

 

The world's top soy buyer imported 13.33 million tonnes of the oilseed in the first three months of 2012, up 21.6% from a year-ago period, according to data issued by the General Administration of Customs on Tuesday (Apr 10). March shipments came in at 4.83 million tonnes, up 26.1% from February.

 

Imported soy stocks at ports were at about four million tonnes by the end of March, compared with as high as 7.5 million tonnes hit in September because of poor crushing margins, analysts estimated.

 

Chinese crushers have boosted purchases of US soy over the past two months amid worries of a lower production in South America, helping drive up CBOT soy prices to seven-month highs earlier this week.

 

"China's purchasing programme has been very bullish for the market. In the second quarter, we may see a slowdown in imports because there is no major Chinese festival so there is no urge to stockpile beans," said Ker Chung Yang, commodities analyst at Phillip Futures in Singapore.

 

"But looking from the macro-economic point of view the inflation is at a higher level and there are expectations of monetary easing, which could result into higher imports and provide another bullish tone for soybean prices."

 

The China National Grain and Oils Information Center, an official think-tank, expects imports in April to be flat and arrivals in May to peak at 5.8 million tonnes.

 

The centre earlier estimated an 8.9% on-year rise in 2011/2012 soy imports to 57 million tonnes. Chinese crushers have increased imports to meet robust demand from the livestock breeding sector as the industry has also expanded crushing capacity this year.

 

China, a major consumer of edible oils, imported 30.5% more in the first three months at 1.76 million tonnes, official data showed.

 

Imports of edible oils, mainly soyoil and palmoil, were 580,000 tonnes in March, a rise of 81.3% from March 2011.