BEIJING: China’s soybean imports from Brazil in June climbed by 9.2% from a year earlier, customs data showed on Sunday, driven by a strong harvest and the ongoing Sino-U.S. trade war, while supplies from the United States rose 21%.
The world’s biggest soybean buyer imported 10.62 million metric tons of the oilseed from Brazil last month, or 86.6% of the total imports, compared with 9.72 million tons a year earlier, data from the General Administration of Customs showed.
June arrivals from the U.S. reached 1.58 million tons, or about 12.9% of the total for the month, up from 1.31 million tons a year earlier.
China’s soybean imports hit the highest level ever for the month of June to 12.26 million metric tons.
“The year-on-year increase in June imports mainly reflects a lag from April caused by slow customs clearance, while the growth from January to June is driven by Brazil’s bumper 2024/25 soybean harvest,” said Liu Jinlu, an agricultural researcher at Guoyuan Futures.
For January-June, China’s imports from Brazil totalled 31.86 million tons, down 7.5% compared with the same period last year.
Total arrivals from the U.S. in the first half of the year came to 16.15 million tons, up 33% on the prior year, the data showed.
China’s soybean arrivals are likely to stay elevated in the third quarter, while fourth-quarter imports will hinge on the outcome of U.S.-China trade talks, traders and analysts have said.
Soymeal inventories have surged amid an influx of South American beans and sluggish demand, Liu said.
“Due to the short storage window of South American soybeans, crushers have sustained high operating rates. While soybean meal production has accelerated, downstream demand has slowed, resulting in a ‘just-in-time’ purchasing pattern and a rapid build-up of soybean meal inventories.”
China imported 111,603 tons of soybeans from Argentina inthe half of the year, down 47.5% from the same period last year, though the data showed no arrivals in June.
