Oil mills have slightly lowered down operation rates this week (June 20-26), as some of them are facing swelling soybean meal inventories, especially those in east China. Soybean crush at domestic mills totals 2,031,000 tonnes (meal 1,604,490 tonnes and oil 385,890 tonnes), down 107,200 tonnes or 5.01% from 2,138,200 tonnes in the previous week. Meanwhile, operation rates (capacity utilization) are 58.50%, down 3.08% from 61.58% in the previous week. Soybean crush is predicted to be around 2.05 mln tonnes and 2.08 mln tonnes in the next two weeks, respectively. All oil mills are seeking to work at full capacity and to speed up deliveries, unless disrupted by swelling stockpiles.

Soybean crush nationwide is estimated at 8.79 mln tonnes in June at current utilization rate, above 8.6194 mln tonnes in the previous month and also above 7.3954 mln tonnes of the corresponding period last year.

As of this week, soybean crush nationwide totals 63,730,164 tonnes in the soybean crop year of 2019/20 (from October 1st, 2019), up 632,779 tonnes or 1% from 63,097,385 tonnes of the same period last year. In calendar year of 2020 (from Jan. 1st, 2020), national soybean crush amounts to 41,746,650 tonnes, up 1,800,665 tonnes or 4.5% from 39,945,985 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: