BEIJING: China’s soybean imports from the US more than doubled in October from a year earlier, marking a seventh month of growth, as buyers accelerated shipments fearing a rise in trade tensions if Donald Trump were to return to the White House.
Trump won the US presidential election the following month in a comeback that is likely to reignite trade tensions between Washington and Beijing.
According to traders and analysts, tariff threats in Trump’s campaign speeches have led some Chinese importers to shun US shipments starting in January.
China, the world’s largest soybean buyer, imported 541,434 metric tons of soybeans from the United States last month, up from 228,253 tons a year ago, according to the General Administration of Customs data on Wednesday.
However, the bulk of China’s imports for October came from Brazil, with 8.09 million metric tons imported overall.
Arrivals from the U.S have been surging since April, and China is on track for a record soybean import this year due to a rush to stockpile U.S beans.
As of the January-October period, total US soybean imports stood at 89.94 million tons. Arrivals from Argentina for the month surged to 1.36 million tons from 1,077 tons a year earlier.
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Imports from larger producer Brazil in October rose 15% to 5.53 million tons from last year.
Total shipments from Brazil over January-October rose 13.6% year-on-year to 67.8 million tons. Arrivals from the US fell 13% to 15.1 million metric tons.
China’s soybean imports are expected to drop to 98.8 million metric tons for the year ending September 2025, down from 109.4 million tons the previous year, According to an executive from China National Cereals, Oils and Foodstuffs Corporation.
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