June 12, 2009

China's soy imports fell to 3.52 million tonnes in May, down 5.1 percent from April's 3.71 million tonnes, but still a marginal rise of 1.2 percent from May 2008, according to official figures from the General Administration of Customs (GAC) on Thursday (Jun 11).

The GAC added that China's soy imports in the first five months of 2009 rose 27 percent on-year to 17.38 million tonnes.

Beijing's stockpiling of domestic soy has raised prices and prompted a surge of cheap imports.

Meanwhile, traders had expected May and June arrivals to be larger than April with initial figures from the commerce ministry indicating that June imports would reach 4.62 million tonnes.