Cargill Inc., the world’s biggest crop trader, said China just made an enormous purchase of US soybeans that underscores bullish momentum in the global oilseed market.
The Asian nation rushed to secure more than 3 million metric tons of US soy on Tuesday and Wednesday, according to Alex Sanfeliu, Cargill’s head of world trading. That signals a much bigger appetite for the commodity than previously expected and comes at a time when plantings in Brazil, the top supplier, are being threatened by adverse weather.
“The message is around: China is stocking up, buying more quantities than everyone thought,” he said in an interview at Cargill’s Geneva office.
The purchases will help bolster Chinese inventories and come ahead of bilateral talks between US President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, on Nov. 15. The get-together of the leaders of the world’s two largest economies comes on the sidelines of next week’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in San Francisco.
Renewed Chinese appetite for US soybean supplies has helped support prices for the oilseed used in a range of goods including chicken feed, cooking oil and renewable diesel, making it the most bullish agricultural commodity story in the short term, according to Sanfeliu. Soybean prices touched their highest price since September earlier in the week.
Read More: China Books More Than 1 Million Tons of US Soy in a Week
The US Department of Agriculture slashed its forecast on global soy reserves for a fifth straight month on Thursday while raising the outlook for China’s crushing volumes, an indication that the supply-demand balance for the current season may be tighter than previously expected.
What’s more, planting in Brazil has been disrupted by drier-than-normal weather in the country’s key central region as well as by excessive rain in southern states, raising questions about the size of its new crop.
China appears to be buying more soybeans than needed for domestic use, signaling the the world’s largest oilseed importer may be seeking to build up inventories to weather potential supply disruptions in a scenario that includes increased geopolitical risks, according to Sanfeliu.
“If you look at what commercially China needs, they are buying beyond,” he said. “There’s enough bull flags around.”
--With assistance from Gerson Freitas Jr..
(Adds comments from Cargill trader, USDA forecast.)
