As operation rates pick up slightly this week (Mar. 21-27), soybean crush at domestic mills totals 1,476,100 tonnes (meal 1,166,119 tonnes and oil 280,459 tonnes), up 89,500 tonnes or 6.45% from 1,386,600 tonnes in the previous week. Meanwhile, operation rates (capacity utilization) are 42.51%, up 2.66% from 39.85% in the previous week. Soybean crush will continue to rise fractionally next week to around 1.50 mln tonnes, and then it will fall again to 1.39 mln tonnes that following week for soybean shortages. Soybean meal supply will remain tight in the next few weeks under low-level soybean crush.
Soybean crush nationwide is estimated at 6.60 mln tonnes in March at current utilization rate, above 6.3247 mln tonnes in the previous month and but below 7.0243 mln tonnes of the corresponding period last year.
As of this week, soybean crush nationwide totals 39,995,814 tonnes in the soybean crop year of 2019/20 (from October 1st, 2019), down 577,071 tonnes or 1.42% from 40,572,885 tonnes of the same period last year. In calendar year of 2020 (from Jan. 1st, 2020), national soybean crush amounts to 17,969,400 tonnes, up 547,915 tonnes or 3.15% from 17,421,485 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:
