As some oil mills stay in downtime subject to the environmental protection in Shandong and some suspend or limit production under swelling meal inventory in Guangdong and Guangxi, operation rates for soybeans decline as expected this week (Dec 19-25). The decline even goes beyond the forecast as the downtime is long due to severe air pollution in Rizhao, Shandong Province. Soybean crush at domestic mills totals 1,882,080 tonnes (meal 1,486,843 tonnes and oil 357,595 tonnes), down 125,100 tonnes or 6.23% from 2,007,180 tonnes last week. Meanwhile, operation rates (capacity utilization) are 53.75%, down 3.58% from 57.33% in the previous week. Soybean crush is predicted to be 1.82 mln tonnes and near 2.0 mln tonnes in the coming two weeks, respectively.

Soybean crush nationwide is estimated at 8.44 mln tonnes in December at current utilization rate, lower than 8.543 mln tonnes in the previous month but higher than 8.1008 mln tonnes of the corresponding period last year.

In the crop year of 2020/21 (from Oct 1st, 2020), China’s soybean crush totals 24,026,184 tonnes, up 3,135,684 tonnes or 15.01% from 20,890,500 tonnes a year earlier.

In the calendar year of 2020 (from Jan. 1st, 2020), China’s soybean crush amounts to 93,632,870 tonnes, up 10,700,685 tonnes or 12.9% from 82,932,185 tonnes of the corresponding period in 2019.

Fig.: Soybean Weekly Crush in China (2016-2020)

Details for weekly crush by region are shown as follows: