01
Jun
China’s soybean importers are pushing to postpone or cancel cargoes mainly ordered from suppliers in Brazil as they rack up hefty losses processing the commodity into cooking oil and animal feed ingredients, said three trade sources. China, which buys around 60 percent of soybeans traded worldwide, took advantage of strong crushing profits at the beginning of the year and lower prices following bumper harvests in Brazil to aggressively buy the oilseed. But those profits have swung to the biggest losses in nearly three years after China’s edible oil markets were flooded with rapeseed oil auctioned from national reserves and by growing imports of other alternative vegetable oils. Soybean crushers in Shandong province, a key production hub in the country’s east, were this week losing 292 yuan ($43) on each ton of soybeans processed, the worst since September 2014. Each panamax-sized vessel carries about 60,000 metric tons of soybeans, representing processing losses of about $2.58 million if crushed in Shandong. Imports in May and June will likely hit around 9 to 9.5 million metric tons as previously booked cargoes arrive, sources said. In July, soybean cargo arrivals at Chinese ports are expected to drop to about 8 million metric tons with further declines seen in the rest of the third quarter. (Source: Reuters)