February 2, 2012

China to enlarge soy crushing capacity

This year, China, the world's largest soy importer and consumer, will increase its soy crushing capacity by over 10% despite serious overflowing capacity.

Crushers will likely add more than 12 million tonnes of annual soy crushing capacity this year, the state-backed China National Grain & Oils Information Center said Wednesday (Feb 1).

The CNGOIC earlier estimated that China's annual soy crushing capacity is expected to reach 125 million tonnes by the end of 2012, more than double demand of around 60 million tonnes.

Last year, China added more than 15 million tonnes of annual oilseed crushing capacity - the biggest expansion since 2004, the CNGOIC said. Most of the new facilities are for soy.

State-owned grain trader COFCO Group and its subsidiaries led the expansion. In 2011, they opened new crushing facilities in Guangxi and Tianjin provinces with a combined capacity of 8,000 tonnes a day, or around three million tonnes a year.

Meanwhile, the group completed three plants that can process both soy and rapeseed in Hubei and Anhui provinces, the CNGOIC report showed. The three plants have a combined capacity of 3,000 tonnes per day, or about 1.1 million tonnes a year, the CNGOIC said.

China National Grain Reserves Corp., the state stockpiler, expanded its presence in the market by starting operations at two new soy crushers in Guangdong and Jiangsu provinces with a combined capacity of 6,000 tonnes a day, or around 2.2 million tonnes annually.

Yihai Kerry Investment Co., the Chinese subsidiary of Singapore-based Wilmar International Ltd. (WLMIY), added one crusher with a daily capacity of 2,000 tonnes, the report showed.

The National Development and Reform Commission said earlier in a development plan that the government plans to limit soy crushing capacity to 95 million tonnes annually by 2015 and will shut down some crushers with outdated technologies.