As operation rates jump to a very high level this week (Feb. 22-28), soybean crush at domestic mills totals 1,927,200 tonnes (meal 1,522,488 tonnes and oil 366,168 tonnes), up 118,400 tonnes or 6.54% from 1808800 tonnes in the previous week. Meanwhile, operation rates (capacity utilization) reach 55.38%, up 3.40 percentage points from 51.98% in the previous week. Some oil mills will suspend production in the next two weeks for a lack of soybeans, for soybean arrivals are forecast to be in small volume in March. With lower operation rates, soybean crush is predicted to be about 1.63 mln tonnes next week and 1.65 mln tonnes that following week.
Soybean crush nationwide is estimated at 6.34 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 34,002,714 tonnes in the soybean crop year of 2019/20 (from October 1st, 2019), down 194,371 tonnes or 0.57% from 34,197,085 tonnes of the same period last year. In calendar year of 2020 (from Jan. 1st, 2020), national soybean crush amounts to 11,976,300 tonnes, up 930,615 tonnes or 8.42% from 11,045,685 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:
