Chinese state-owned firms bought about 1.5 million tonnes of US soyabeans on Thursday for shipment in July and August, in their second major purchase of US supplies this month, three traders with knowledge of the deals said. The purchases come as US and Chinese officials meet in Beijing for negotiations aimed at ending a protracted trade war between the two economic giants that has slashed US commodity exports to China, most notably soyabeans.
In a positive sign for the talks, US officials told Reuters that China had made proposals on a range of issues that go further than before, including on forced technology transfer, a particularly large obstacle in talks thus far.
Thursday's soya purchases were mostly for shipment from the US Gulf Coast, two of the traders said. They were also the latest in a string of goodwill US commodity purchases by Chinese state-owned firms since December, when the United States and China agreed to a trade war detente as the two sides attempted to negotiate.
Most recently, Chinese buyers booked about 1.7 million tonnes following US-China trade talks in Washington, during which US officials said Beijing vowed to buy an additional 10 million tonnes of the oilseed. Accelerated Chinese buying of US soyabeans helped to narrow the US trade deficit by the most in 10 months in January, according to US Commerce Department data on Wednesday.
Still, US soyabean sales to the world's top soyabean importer were well behind their usual pace after Beijing slapped steep tariffs on US shipments last summer, effectively halting purchases by China's private crushers. Thursday's deals bring China's total purchases of the latest US soyabean crop to around 12.7 million tonnes, compared with more tan 28.5 million tonnes sold at the same point last year, to according to US Department of Agriculture data.
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