Following a slight rise in operation rates this week (Jun 27-Jul 3), soybean crush at domestic mills totals 2,042,700 tonnes (meal 1,613,733 tonnes and oil 388,113 tonnes), up 11,700 tonnes or 0.05% from 2,031,000 tonnes in the previous week. Meanwhile, operation rates (capacity utilization) are 58.83%, up 0.33% from 58.50% in the previous week. Soybean crush is predicted to continue the uptrend to 2.06 mln tonnes and 2.10 mln tonnes in the next two weeks, respectively. A majority of mills will not suspend production as they are speeding up deliveries amid huge pressure from soybean meal inventories.

As of this week, soybean crush nationwide totals 65,772,864 tonnes in the soybean crop year of 2019/20 (from October 1st, 2019), up 1,262,679 tonnes or 1.96% from 64,510,185 tonnes of the same period last year. In calendar year of 2020 (from Jan. 1st, 2020), national soybean crush amounts to 43,789,350 tonnes, up 2,430,565 tonnes or 5.88% from 41,358,785 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: