Affected by a machine overhaul and unavailable soybean supplies in some oil mills this week (Mar. 24th-30th), national soybean crush now plunges to 1,480,800 tonnes (1,177,236 tonnes of soybean meal, 266,544 tonnes of soybean oil), decreasing by 10.33% or 170,700 tonnes below from 1,651,500 tonnes last week factored in lowered operating rate. Meantime, soybean processing capacity utilization is down to 43.36%, 5 percentage points lower than 48.36% last week. Generally speaking, total soybean crush in week 14 will be probably up to 1.60 Mln tonnes when April comes, but the figure is relatively in a low level. Yet, soybean crush in week 15 will be enhanced to 1.79 Mln tonnes a relative higher level with resumed operating in most oil mills. Accordingly, the machine boot time in oil mills is generally delayed for one week.

    Latest estimates for national soybean crush in March are 7.30 Mln tonnes according to current soybean processing capacity, higher than February’s 4.255 Mln tonnes and 6.5984 Mln tonnes the same month last year.

    Soybean crush in year 2017/2018 (as from 1 October 2017) has now amounted to 44,167,920 tonnes, 6.22% or 2,586,543 tonnes higher than 41,581,377 tonnes attained in year 2016/17. While soybean crush in year 2018 (as from 1 January 2018) has totaled 19,832,300 tonnes, a growth of 5.02% or 948,721 tonnes from 18,883,579 tonnes year on year.

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