The US Department of Agriculture's weekly export Sales report shows that as of the 38th week of 2023/24, total US soybean export sales to China (mainland) decreased by 23.3% year-on-year.
For the 2023/24 year ending May 16, 2024 (beginning September 1), U.S. soybean exports to China (mainland) totaled approximately 23.7 million tons, compared to 31.02 million tons for the same period last year. The U.S. shipped 5,000 tons of soybeans to China in the week, compared with 84,000 tons the week before.
The amount of 2023/24 soybeans sold but not shipped to China so far is about 140,000 tons, up from nearly 60,000 tons in the same period last year.
So far in 2023/24, total U.S. soybean sales to China (shipped and unshipped sales) are 23.84 million tons, down 23.3% from 23.2% last week and 23.5% two weeks ago. Total U.S. soybean sales in 2023/24 to date are 42.88 million tons, down 15.7% from the same period last year, down 16.0% last week and down 16.5% two weeks ago. U.S. soybean sales for 2024/25 were about 960,000 tons, up 66,000 tons from a week earlier.
In its May 2024 supply and demand report, the USDA expects China's soybean imports in 2023/24 to be 105 million tons, unchanged from last month's forecast and slightly higher than 104.5 million tons in 2022/23. For comparison, soybean imports in 2022/23 increased by 15.7 percent year-on-year.
The USDA forecast US soybean exports in 2023/24 at 46.27 million tonnes (1.7 billion TBS), unchanged from last month's forecast and down 14.6 per cent from 54.21 million tonnes in 2022/23. U.S. soybean exports fell 7.4 percent in 2022/23 from a year earlier.