Oil mills have resumed normal operation rates this week (Apr 25-May 1) due o decent crush margins, some of which have even worked at full capacity. Soybean crush at domestic mills totals 1,777,000 tonnes (meal 1,403,830 tonnes and oil 337,630 tonnes), up 102,100 tonnes or 6.10% from 1,674,900 tonnes in the previous week. Meanwhile, operation rates (capacity utilization) are 51.18%, up 2.94% from 48.24% in the previous week. With huge soybean cargoes arriving at ports, the crush will continue to rise to around 1.82 mln tonnes and 1.98 mln tonnes in the next two weeks, respectively.
Soybean crush nationwide is estimated at 6.74 mln tonnes in April at current utilization rate, above 6.5783 mln tonnes in the previous month and but below 7.1429 mln tonnes of the corresponding period last year.
As of this week, soybean crush nationwide totals 47,815,414 tonnes in the soybean crop year of 2019/20 (from October 1st, 2019), down 1,023,071 tonnes or 2.09% from 48,838,485 tonnes of the same period last year. In calendar year of 2020 (from Jan. 1st, 2020), national soybean crush amounts to 25,789,000 tonnes, up 101,915 tonnes or 0.04% from 25,687,085 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:
