China soymeal demand growth to slow to 5%: CNGOIC

Demand for soybean meal is expected to slow to 5.1% in the 2018 calendar year, according to an update from the China National Grains and Oil Information Centre, as growth of hybrid meal is expected to eat into market share.

The CNGOIC didn’t give specific figures for demand in the report released last week, but according to an emailed document, Chinese soymeal demand is expected to hit just short of 74 million mt in the 2017/2018 calendar year, up around 8% on the year.

“The increasing demand of hybrid meal quells the demand for soybean meal for pigs,” the report said, adding that total production of pork last year in China rose 0.8% to 53 million mt.

Chinese soymeal demand has been increasing at between 8-12% every year for the past five years, according to data from the CNGOIC.

China is self-sufficient in terms of producing soymeal as it has plenty of crushing capacity, although it imports around 85-90% of its demand for soybeans each year.

Earlier this year the CNGOIC said it expected China to import 100 million mt of soybeans this year, up 5% on the 96 million mt it brought in in 2017.