China soybean crush stable until new year, to fall 23% in Feb

China’s soybean crushing rate was 1.9 million mt last week and is expected to stay at around 1.8 million mt for the next three weeks until the Chinese New Year starts on February 16, according to a report from the National Grain & Oil Information Centre.

Thereafter, crush rates will fall 23% overall in February, down from 7.8 million mt in January and 8.5 million mt in December, as factories are expected to stop operations for a week and vessel arrivals are expected to slow, the report said.

“In China, supply peak season has passed,” the report said, adding that this was despite a marginal fall in soybean oil stocks.

Nationwide soybean oil stocks reached 1.54 million mt last week, a decrease of 40,000 mt from the previous week, but up around 40% on the 1.06 million mt at this time last year.

Meanwhile, soybean meal stocks were 920,000 mt last week; up 10,000 mt from previous week; an increase of 300,000 mt from last year and up 140,000 mt on the average for this time of year.