June 25, 2005

China's soybean imports reached 2 million tonnes in May

China, the world's biggest soybean importer, more than doubled its purchases of soy to 2 million tonnes in May from a year earlier.
 

Soybean purchases in the five months ending May 31 totalled 9.4 million tonnes, 25 percent more than a year earlier. Imports from the US, Brazil and Argentina meet about half of China's annual soybean demand, and helped boost prices by 19 percent on the Chicago Board of Trade in the past three months.

China, the world's biggest consumer of wheat, imported 239,114 tonnes of the grain in May. The country's wheat imports rose 66 percent in the first five months to 2.5 million tonnes, slowing from a 219 percent growth rate in the first four months.

Optimism in Australian oilseed farmers
 

Australian farmers are expecting the oilseeds market to become more "bullish" should China sweep into soybean markets and buy up a big chunk of US' soy crop or if production in Brazil and Argentina declines.

Profarmer Australia, an Australia-based commodities research company expects global production of soybeans, canola and other oilseeds to fall by 1 percent this year to 377 million tonnes.

Soybean prices may average about 4.8 percent ending June 30, 2006, compared to a year earlier on expectations that global oilseed supplies will fall faster than demand, the Australian Bureau of Agricultural & Resource Economics said.
 

US Sales

The US Department of Agriculture said that advance sales of US soybeans to China reached 11.8 million tonnes from Sept. 1 through June 16 compared with 8.23 million tonnes in the same period a year earlier.

China's total soybean imports may jump 42 percent to 24.2 million tonnes in the year ending Sept. 30, from 17 million tonnes in the previous year, while monthly imports may average about 2.5 million tonnes in June and July.