November 28, 2011

It is estimated that China's soy imports in November would reach 5.63 million tonnes, the highest monthly import volume this year, the Ministry of Commerce said Friday (Nov 25).

Such a volume would be a sharp 48% rise compared with October and a 2.7% increase compared with last November.

December imports will likely fall to 4.2 million tonnes, the ministry said.

The estimates are based on reports from importers during the November 1-15 period.

The latest estimate is a slight upward revision on a ministry forecast earlier this month of 5.17 million tonnes for November, which in turn was a sharply higher revision from 3.19 million tonnes in an earlier report.

China imported 3.81 million tonnes of soy in October, marking the third consecutive month of declines.

The ministry's regular forecast may not tally with the actual import figure as it does not include all cargoes. Recent forecasts have tended to overstate expected cargoes. The ministry forecast China would import 4.8 million tonnes of soy in October.

It issues the estimates twice a month.