Soybean crush eases this week (Aug 29-Sept 4) as some mills have limited or suspended production due to huge pressure from soybean meal inventories. The crush at domestic mills totals 1,951,050 tonnes (meal 1,541,330 tonnes and oil 370,700 tonnes), down 87,150 tonnes or 4.2% from 2,038,200 tonnes last week. Meanwhile, operation rates (capacity utilization) are 56.19%, down 2.51% from 58.70% in the previous week. Soybean crush is predicted to increase to around 2.0 mln tonnes and 2.05 mln tonnes in the coming two weeks, respectively.  

As of this week, soybean crush nationwide totals 83,869,314 tonnes in the soybean crop year of 2019/20 (from Oct 1st, 2019), up 4,615,379 tonnes or 5.82% from 79,253,935 tonnes of the same period last year. In calendar year of 2020 (from Jan. 1st, 2020), national soybean crush amounts to 61,839,800 tonnes, up 5,737,265 tonnes or 10.23% from 56,102,535 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: