China, the world’s top soybean buyer, brought in 6.92 million tons of the oilseed in October, up 18 percent from 5.85 million tons in the same month last year, according to data released by the General Administration of Customs.
But that was down 13.6 percent from 8.01 million tons in September.
“The figures were higher than expected. It was likely that some crushers scrambled to buy more cargoes from Brazil as (the) Brazilian bean season neared the end,” said Xie Huilan, analyst with Cofeed, an agribusiness research firm.
Beijing imposed 25 percent tariffs on a list of U.S. products including soybeans and grains on July 6, in response to similar measures levied on Chinese goods.
China crushes soybeans to churn out animal feed ingredient soymeal for its massive livestock herds.
Chinese importers have been scooping up Brazilian beans in recent months, leading to bumper stockpiles of soymeal.
“We have sufficient supplies of beans, at least until the end of January. Some of our plants had to suspend operations due to high (soymeal) stocks,” said a source with a major Chinese crusher.
He declined to be identified as he was not authorized to speak with media.
China’s national weekly soymeal inventory stood at 89.31 million tons in mid-October, the highest for the month in at least 8 years.
Meanwhile, the country’s soybean stocks hit a record-high of 900 million tons on Oct. 12.
The customs data showed imports for the first 10 months at 76.93 million tons, down from 77.3 million tons in the same period last year.
China’s soybean imports could drop in the coming months, with some traders predicting a shortage of the oilseed early next year.
But some are hopeful that U.S.-Sino trade ties could improve.
“My wild speculation is that the trade war might stop after G20 at the end of the month. But no one is buying American soybeans yet, everyone is waiting,” said Tian Hao, a senior analyst with First Futures said before the data came out.
The Group of 20 nations is due to meet in Argentina later in November.
Imports of vegetable oils in October were 471,000 tons, down 18.8 percent from the previous month.
