Item 1 of 2 A load of soybeans is dumped into an elevator hopper during harvest season at Deerfield AG Services grain elevator facility in Massillon, Ohio, U.S., October 7, 2021. REUTERS/Dane Rhys/File Photo
BEIJING/SINGAPORE, Nov 26 (Reuters) – China bought at least 10 cargoes of U.S. soybeans worth around $300 million in contracts signed since Tuesday, two traders with knowledge of the deals said, a day after the presidents of both countries spoke on the phone.
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One trader said China bought about 12 cargoes, while another estimated the volume at 10–15. Each cargo is about 60,000 to 65,000 metric tons.
All the cargoes are scheduled for January shipment from U.S. Gulf Coast terminals and Pacific Northwest ports, the sources said on Wednesday.
The purchases come despite U.S. soybeans being priced higher than Brazilian supplies.
China paid around $2.3 per bushel over the January Chicago futures contract for shipments from Gulf terminals and a premium of $2.2 per bushel from Pacific Northwest ports, well above the prices for Brazilian soybeans, which are around $1.8 per bushel over the January CBOT futures, traders said.
“Commercial buyers will continue to avoid U.S. soybean imports, as prices remain higher than Brazilian beans. At these levels, crush margins are not financially viable,” said Johnny Xiang, founder of Beijing-based AgRadar Consulting.
China, which had largely shunned U.S. soybeans for months amid a tense Washington–Beijing trade standoff, has stepped up purchases recently following late-October talks between the two countries’ leaders in South Korea.
State-run grain buyer COFCO has led the buying, booking nearly 2 million tons of U.S. soybeans since late October, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data.
The recent deals still remain well below the 12 million tons of purchases announced by the White House.
Reporting by Ella Cao in Beijing and Naveen Thukral in Singapore; Editing by Tom Hogue and Muralikumar Anantharaman
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