China is increasing soybean imports to meet growing demand ahead of a seasonal period of high consumption, Bloomberg reported. Chinese companies have booked at least 40 cargoes from the United States, Brazil and Argentina, according to people aware of the transactions. The purchases will help rebuild stocks ahead of Chinese festivals ranging from autumn to Lunar New Year.

Most of the cargo is expected to be loaded in September and October, but some were ordered for next year, Bloomberg reported. Chinese purchases slowed in the first half of the year amid negative margins for grinding grain into bran and oil, reducing inventories ahead of a busy season of demand. The U.S. Department of Agriculture on August 31 announced export sales activity of 167,000 tons of soybeans to China, bringing total sales for the week to 431,000 tons.

"It is worth remembering that the purchase of soybeans in grains from Brazil by China has already reached 7.97 million tons for one month of July and this was in 2018 and, of course in that same year, this value contributed to the export of Brazilian soybeans as a whole exceeding the barrier of 10.0 million tons in the period.

It is important to highlight that in the last 2 years, both in 2021 and 2022, the Chinese share in the export volume of Brazilian soybeans was below 70.0% (Table) and this value was already above 80.0% in 2019. The fact is that China has slowed the pace of soybean buying, despite record export revenues, driven by the record price of grain in the international market," farmnews reports.

Source: Agrolink