As soybean meal pressure is not abating and mills in Rizhao, Shandong Province are required by local environmental authorities to cut down production under heavy pollution, operation rates for soybean crush declines as expected this week (Nov 28-Dec 4). Soybean crush at domestic mills totals 1,789,680 tonnes (meal 1,413,847 tonnes and oil 340,039 tonnes), down 53,600 tonnes or 2.9% from 1,843,280 tonnes last week. Meanwhile, operation rates (capacity utilization) are 51.11%, down 1.53% from 52.64% in the previous week. Soybean crush will rise again to 1.95 mln tonnes and 1.95 mln tonnes in the coming two weeks, respectively.

In the crop year of 2020/21 (from Oct 1st, 2020), China’s soybean crush totals 18,186,144 tonnes, up 2,817,944 tonnes or 18.34% from 15,368,200 tonnes a year earlier.

In the calendar year of 2020 (from Jan. 1st, 2020), China’s soybean crush amounts to 87,792,830 tonnes, up 10,382,945 tonnes or 13.41% from 77,409,885 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: