China, the world's top buyer of soyabeans, imported 7.39 million tonnes of the oilseed in November, a rise of 22.6 percent from a year ago as crushers increased production to meet seasonal demand, official customs data showed on Tuesday. The November imports, which were 33.6 percent higher than October, brought the country's total soyabean imports in the first 11 months of the year to 72.57 million tonnes, up 15.4 percent from the same period in 2014, data from the General Administration of Customs showed.
The monthly figure was still down from a record soyabean import volume hit in July at 9.5 million tonnes. "The imports are in line with market expectations. Crushers are running at a high capacity and we expect December imports would rise to more than 8 million tonnes," said Monica Tu, an analyst with Shanghai JC Intelligence (JCI). China's December imports could rise to 8.64 million tonnes, according to data compiled by industry website www.cofeed.com. Soya mills are expected to crush a record weekly volume of 1.9 million tonnes of beans this week, up from 1.76 million tonnes last week, the site's data showed.
Chinese soya mills typically boost crushing of the oilseed into soyameal and edible oil as demand picks up ahead of the country's traditional holidays. The Chinese New Year festival falls in early February next year. China's imports of edible vegetable oils also picked up in November to 580,000 tonnes, up 21 percent from October. Imports in the first 11 months of the year rose 1.3 percent to 6 million tonnes, according to the customs data. China imports mainly palm oil, soyabean oil and rapeseed oil.