Some millers are facing a temporary soybean shortage as they are unable to discharge soybean vessels when berths are under strain at ports, and some are struggling with ballooning soybean meal inventories, so soybean crush has been slightly lower this week (Aug 1-7). Specifically, soybean crush at domestic mills totals 2,044,400 tonnes (meal 1,615,076 tonnes and oil 388,436 tonnes), down 17,200 tonnes or 0.83% from 2,061,600 tonnes last week. Meanwhile, operation rates (capacity utilization) are 58.88%, down 0.5% from 59.38% in the previous week. Soybean crush is predicted to increase to around 2.05 mln tonnes and 2.08mln tonnes in the coming two weeks, respectively.

As of this week, soybean crush nationwide totals 75,897,264 tonnes in the soybean crop year of 2019/20 (from Oct 1st, 2019), up 3,640,079 tonnes or 5.04% from 72,257,185 tonnes of the same period last year. In calendar year of 2020 (from Jan. 1st, 2020), national soybean crush amounts to 53,867,750 tonnes, up 4,761,965 tonnes or 9.70% from 49,105,785 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: