Operation rates fractionally drop this week (July 4-10), as some mills have to suspend production for swelling soybean meal inventories and some for a temporary lack of soybeans. Soybean crush at domestic mills totals 1,999,600 tonnes (meal 1,579,684 tonnes and oil 379,924 tonnes), down 43,100 tonnes or 2.1% from 2,042,700 tonnes in the previous week. Meanwhile, operation rates (capacity utilization) are 57.59%, down 1.24% from 58.83% in the previous week. Soybean crush is predicted to increase to 2.05 mln tonnes and 2.10 mln tonnes in the next two weeks, respectively.

As of this week, soybean crush nationwide totals 67,772,464 tonnes in the soybean crop year of 2019/20 (from October 1st, 2019), up 1,738,679 tonnes or 2.63% from 66,033,785 tonnes of the same period last year. In calendar year of 2020 (from Jan. 1st, 2020), national soybean crush amounts to 45,788,950 tonnes, up 2,906,565 tonnes or 6.78% from 42,882,385 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: