China’s soybean crush volumes miss expectations, stocks drop further

China’s soybean crush volume declined last week to fall to a lower level than market participants had expected, while soybean stocks continued to fall on reduced imports, weekly data from the National Grain and Oil Information Centre (CNGOIC) showed Thursday.

The country’s crushing level fell by 40,000 mt on the week to 1.61 million mt, down 650,000 mt from the previous month but unchanged from the level recorded a year ago.

“As some crushing plants have restricted or shut down production due to deficit soybean supply, last week’s domestic soybean crush was lower than expected,” said CNGOIC.

“Despite relatively low soymeal stocks in crushing plants and improved crush margins based on spot prices, as soybean arrivals were low, crushing plants were unable to raise crush volume significantly. Soybean crush is expected to remain around 1.65 million mt this week,” the agency added.

Soybean stocks continued to drop on the week to 3.3 million mt, down 300,000 mt from the prior week and 1.63 million mt from the previous year.

Soymeal stocks also fell week-on-week to 260,000 mt on lowered crushing outputs and strong demand from the feed industry.

The level was down 40,000 mt from a week ago and 220,000 mt from the same point last year.

Similarly, soyoil inventories in China's major oil plants declined to 750,000 mt, 40,000 mt lower than the previous week and down 100,000 mt from a year earlier.