China May Cut U.S. Soy Imports, Boost Brazil Buying

By Bloomberg News

May 25 (Bloomberg) -- China may reduce purchases from the U.S. and increase buying from Brazil in the next few months, said the state-backed China National Grain and Oils Information Center, without elaborating.

The world’s largest soybean buyer may import more than 4 million tons of soybeans in May, the center added in an e-mailed statement today.

Imports by the Asian nation and a drought-reduced South American crop have pushed soybeans in Chicago to their highest in almost eight months. China’s soybean imports in April rose 55 percent from a year earlier to 3.71 million metric tons, according to customs data.

“The U.S. will not be the main source for Chinese shipments in the next months because it’s approaching the end of the U.S. soybean sales season,” Li Jianlei, analyst at Cofco Futures Co., said by phone from Beijing today.

Still, “Chinese imports in the next few months will not be as much as in the months of April and May because the animal feed demand will be sluggish until at least August,” Li said.

Inbound shipments may increase to about 9 million tons in the two months, according to the median estimate of five crushers in China surveyed by Bloomberg. China imported a record 13.9 million tons in the first four months of the year, according to the Beijing-based customs office.

The prospect of large imports may prompt some local crushers to roll shipments into later months, trader Eric Zhu of Hanfeng International Trading Co., said in an e-mail May 19.

--Richard Dobson, Feiwen Rong. Editors: Richard Dobson, Wendy Pugh.

To contact the reporter on this story: Richard Dobson in Shanghai at rdobson4@bloomberg.net