Since operating rate is generally improved in China’s oil mills this week (Mar. 3rd-9th) after Chinese New Year, national soybean crush now amounts to 1,804,200 tonnes (1,434,339 tonnes of soybean meal, 324,756 tonnes of soybean oil), up 25.18% or 363,000 tonnes above from 1,441,200 tonnes last week. Meantime, soybean processing capacity utilization is enhanced to 52.83%, 10.63 percentage points higher than 42.20% last week. On the whole, weekly crush in the following two weeks may be around 1.88 Mln tonnes and 1.96 Mln tonnes respectively in wake of lifted operating rate, backed by good crush margins and rising soybean meal prices domestically. 

    Soybean crush in year 2017/2018 (as from October 1 2017) has now amounted to 39,216,620 tonnes, 5.97% or 2,111,243 tonnes higher than 37,005,377 tonnes attained in year 2016/17. While soybean crush in year 2018 (as from January 1, 2018) has totaled 14,881,000 tonnes, a growth of 4.01% or 573,421 tonnes from 14,307,579 tonnes year on year.

                     Figure: Trends of Soybean Weekly Crush in China (2014-2018)