Following another rise in operation rates this week (Feb. 15-21), soybean crush at domestic mills totals 1,808,800 tonnes (meal 1,428,952 tonnes and oil 343,672 tonnes), up 233,200 tonnes or 14.8% from 1,575,600 tonnes in the previous week. Meanwhile, operation rates (capacity utilization) reach 51.98%, up 6.7 percentage points from 45.28% in the previous week. As operation rates continue to increase in the next two weeks, soybean crush is predicted to be around 1.85 mln tonnes and 1.87 mln tonnes, respectively.

 

Soybean crush nationwide is estimated at 6.3023 mln tonnes in February at current utilization rate, above 5.913 mln tonnes in the previous month and also above 3.6871 mln tonnes of the corresponding period last year.

 

As of this week, soybean crush nationwide totals 32,075,514 tonnes in the soybean crop year of 2019/20 (from October 1st, 2019), down 443,971 tonnes or 1.37% from 32,519,485 tonnes of the same period last year. In calendar year of 2020 (from Jan. 1st, 2020), national soybean crush amounts to 10,049,100 tonnes, up 681,015 tonnes or 7.26% from 9,368,085 tonnes of the corresponding period in 2019. 

 

Fig.: Soybean Weekly Crush in China (2016-2020)

 

Details for weekly crush by region and by group are shown as follows: