China's soyabean imports stood at 2.11 million tonnes in March, down 18.8 percent from a year, according to official customs figures. March arrivals were higher than imports of 1.176 million tonnes in February, when many crushers suspended operations for the Lunar New Year.
Industrial analysts expect China's soyabean imports in April and May to be between 2.5 million tonnes and 3.0 million tonnes, respectively, despite many crushers running at low capacity due to high soyameal stocks.
Soyabean imports in the first three months rose 5.7 percent to 5.72 million tonnes from a year, customs figures showed. China also imported 1.84 million tonnes of edible oils, mainly soyaoil and palmoil, in the first quarter.
Customs did not give a breakdown. Traders said Chinese corn exporters had completed shipments of all contracts signed late last year. Corn exports in March were 1.13 million tonnes. Exports from October to March totalled 3.64 million tonnes. China has not issued any fresh export quotas for corn this year.
Comments
Comments are closed.