Today (Apr. 26), the market for meals in China is shown as follows:
Soybean meal: US soybean futures ended 7.25 cents/bu lower on Friday amid the global coronavirus pandemic, and Dalian Commodity Exchange is closed on Sunday today. Most mills are not offering today and distributors have quoted lower by 10-30 CNY/tonne, with tepid trading. Specifically, the price settles at 2900-3060 CNY/tonne today. (Tianjin 3060, Shandong 2970-3010, Jiangsu 2950-2980, Dongguan 2900-2940, and Guangxi 2900-2950.) While increasing purchases of US soybeans, China also keeps buying up on Brazilian crops due to handsome crushing margins. The monthly average of soybean vessels arriving at domestic ports will be overwhelming in May to July, so oil mills will pick up operation rates for soybean crush. The spread of the coronavirus pandemic has delivered a heavy blow to global catering services, which thus affects the demand for meat products. The decline in hog and broiler prices have also had an influence on the market confidence. Distributors become willing to make shipments to book profits, which is a shock in soybean meal market. But it can still take time to ease soybean meal supplies in the spot market, as soybean crush will be lower than forecasts in next two weeks due to delayed soybean vessels. Overall, soybean meal market can hardly have an optimistic trend due to decent crushing margins and huge soybean imports. Buyers can wait at the moment.
Cottonseed meal: Cottonseed meal prices are mainly stable with partial fluctuations of 20-30 CNY/tonne in individual regions today. The soybean will arrive at ports in huge quantity from May to July, so the operation rate among crushing mills is about to pick up. Besides, U.S. soybeans finished down 7.25 cents/bu on Friday amid the coronavirus pandemic worldwide. Additionally, Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) closes on Sunday, so most of crushing mills were not offering price and some dealers cut the price of spot soybean meal by 10-30 CNY/tonne. Thus, cottonseed meal price is depressed by these factors. However, cottonseed meal market is also bolstered as a result of high price of cottonseed and low operation rate among oil plants. Therefore, cottonseed meal price is likely to fluctuate to adjust in the near term.
Imported fishmeal: Imported fishmeal prices are stable today and can be traded through negotiation. Peruvian Standard SD with 65% protein content is 12,000-12,300 CNY/tonne; Peruvian higher-quality SD with 65% protein content is 12,200-12,700 CNY/tonne; Peruvian higher-quality SD with 67% protein content is 13,200-13,300 CNY/tonne; and Peruvian Super Prime SD with 68% protein content is 14,000 CNY/tonne. Peruvian President announced to extend nationwide lockdown till May 10 in a bid to contain the severa impact of the coronavirus, and IMPARE has put the report of inspection results off to April 28. The market forecast that it might be difficult to carry out fish catches in the new season in Peru, and fihsmeal supply is likely to have a tight outlook. Traders are to prop up prices, which is good to the market. However, domestic consumption of fishmeal is small in the aquaculture, and downstream buyers remain cautious at current high prices; hence, the trading is subdued at ports. On the whole, fishmeal market is predicted to keep steady in the short term. Stocks at port: Huangpu 54,000 tonnes, Fuzhou 25,000 tonnes, Shanghai 37,000 tonnes, Tianjin 1,000 tonnes, Dalian 11,000 tonnes, Fangchenggang 1,000 tonnes and 4,000 tonnes at other ports. FOB quotes from foreign markets today: It is quoted steadily at 1,470 USD/tonne for Peruvian Standard with 65% protein content and at 1,700-1,720 USD/tonne for Peruvian super with 68% protein content. Chilean Standard with 65% protein content is quoted steadily at 1,470-1,520 USD/tonne, and super with 68% protein content steadily at 1,720-1,750 USD/tonne.
Imported rapeseed meal: Imported rapeseed meal prices are not available today (Guangxi not available; Guangdong not available; Fujian not available). The situation of coronavirus pandemic remains grim, causing U.S. soybeans to close lower on Friday. As domestic meals futures market closes on Sunday, spot rapeseed meal prices are not available today. Besides, the operation rate among rapeseed crushing mills always stays at low level amid tensions between China and Canada. Additionally, aquaculture will gradually enter into a peak season after May, so the delivery for rapeseed meal becomes quicker and rapeseed meal stocks in coastal regions decrease by 50% to 7,000 tonnes this week, boosting rapeseed meal market. But it will see huge arrival of soybeans in later period, and rapeseed crush rises by 5.84% to 1.67 mln tonnes this week. In this case, dealers are more willing to lock in profits, which may cause soybean meal price to fall further. Overall, rapeseed meal price is likely to fluctuate weakly. Buyers had better not chase up price too excessively.
(USD $1=CNY ￥7.08)
