Soybean imports set to slide in H2 as domestic meat demand weakens

Imported soybeans are offloaded in Nantong Port, Jiangsu province. China imported 34.2 million metric tons of the crop in the first half of 2014, mainly from the United States. Xu Congjun / For China Daily

Soybean imports will shrink in the second half as demand declines, the result of a slowdown in meat demand and high import volumes in the first six months.

Already the world's largest soybean importer, China imported 34.2 million metric tons of the crop in the first half, mainly from the United States. That was up 24 percent year-on-year.

Wang Suiyuan, vice-president of the China Feed Industry Association, said that weaker economic growth and declining domestic demand for meat products are affecting the soybean market. The crop is a key component of animal feed.

China "has experienced lower chicken and hog output, affected by bird flu and declining live pig supplies, since the second half of 2013. Output was also affected by recent typhoons that hit key aquaculture areas in coastal provinces such as Shandong, Zhejiang, Fujian and Hainan," Wang said.

The association forecast year-on-year declines in the output of meat, poultry and eggs in 2014.

Frequent rainstorms in south China from April to July affected demand for aquatic feed, and the output of that product will also fall this year.

China produced 83 million tons of feed in the first half of 2014, down 3 percent.

"Livestock farms and aquafarms have all cut demand for soybean meal," Wang said. "Domestic oil-pressing companies therefore are still holding a large amount of soybean meal after producing the oil, and they haven't found a sales channel in the domestic market yet."

In an effort to ease their financial burden, Chinese oil - pressing companies doubled their exports to 1.36 million tons of soybean meal in the first half. Japan, South Korea, Vietnam and Indonesia were the main consumers.

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