China’s soybean imports are set to drop by a quarter in the last three months of 2018, their biggest fall in at least 12 years as buyers curb purchases amid the Sino-U.S. trade war and high domestic stockpiles.
Reuters reports soybean imports by China, which buys 60% of the oilseed traded worldwide, will likely decline to around 18-20 million tonnes in the fourth quarter, compared with 24.1 million tonnes in the same period last year, traders said.
“Purchases are going to be mainly from Brazil and some from Argentina and Canada," a Singapore-based trader at an international company that owns oilseed processing plants in China told Reuters. "Buyers are not willing to take chances by bringing in U.S. beans."
