Private Chinese crusher buys US soybean for first time in a year

Private Chinese soybean crushers have concluded a first purchase of US soybeans since the trade war between the two countries escalated in July 2018.

A trade of one full cargo late Tuesday was sold to the crusher Yihai Kerry, owned by Wilmar International, for October loading out of ports in the Pacific (PNW), according to traders and brokers spoken to by Agricensus.

The exact shipment terms remained unclear by time of press.

The price was rumour to be either 75 c/bu over November futures on FOB basis or 150 c/bu over November futures on CFR basis, both 10 c/bu below offers last seen by Agricensus.

Three additional purchases were also rumoured to have been concluded late yesterday by Chinese state-owned buyers - Sinograin or Cofco, but these trades could not be fully verified by time of press.

If correct, this would bring total new purchases of US beans by China to no less than 240,000 mt.

But the single cargo purchase by Wilmar is of significance as it marks the first purchase by a privately-owned Chinese crusher since July last year, when tariffs imposed by China of 25% on US soybeans in response to US tariffs on Chinese goods essentially rendered US beans uncompetitive against those from Brazil and Argentina.

Since then, only state-owned buyers bought soybeans from the US on government orders.