China’s May Soybean Imports From Brazil Jump 37.5% Y/Y

By Ella Cao and Lewis Jackson

BEIJING, June 20 (Reuters) – China’s soybean imports from Brazil surged 37.5% in May from a year earlier, data showed on Friday, as buyers scooped up South America’s bumper crop, while supplies from the United States also rose 28.3%.

The world’s biggest soybean buyer imported 12.11 million metric tons of the oilseed from Brazil last month, compared with 8.81 million tons in the same month a year earlier, data from the General Administration of Customs showed.

May arrivals from the U.S. reached 1.63 million tons, up from 1.27 million tons a year earlier. U.S. supplies accounted for 11.7% of China’s total soybean imports last month.

China’s soybean imports for the month hit a record high of 13.92 million metric tons, more than double the volume imported in April, as customs clearance speeds returned to normal and the operating rate of crushing plants recovered.

Imports had plunged to a 10-year low of 6.08 million metric tons in April.

“The arrival of some previously delayed cargoes in May partially contributed to the higher import numbers,” said Liu Jinlu, an agricultural researcher at Guoyuan Futures.

For January-May, shipments from Brazil totalled 21.25 million tons, down 14.0% from the same period last year.

Total arrivals from the U.S. in the first five months of the year came to 14.57 million tons, up 34.3%, the data showed.

“China boosted U.S. soybean purchases ahead of potential China-U.S. trade tensions, and concentrated arrivals drove a Jan-May import increase. Harvest delays in Brazil pushed exports later, leading to a drop in Brazilian shipments,” said Wan Chengzhi, an analyst from Capital Jingdu Futures.

The country’s soybean arrivals are expected to remain high in the third quarter, while fourth-quarter imports will depend on the outcome of U.S.-China trade negotiations, Wan added.

China imported 111,603 tons of soybeans from Argentina in the five-month period, down 47.5% from the same period last year, though the data showed no arrivals in May.

(Reporting by Ella Cao and Lewis Jackson; Editing by Himani Sarkar)