China Cancelling Soybeans?

Rumours are circulating in the market this morning of the cancellation of 4-5 cargoes of old crop US soybean sales by China.

The country's commerce ministry warned only last week that Chinese buyers should "adjust their import pace to avoid excessive imports which may cause losses."

China has been buying and importing soybeans and rapeseed at an aggressive pace so far during 2009, and is likely to ship in almost 4 MMT of soybeans during April.

"China has bought too much, and imports are already sufficient to meet demand. We do not expect companies to continue to buy such a large amount," said one analyst with the China National Grain and Oils Information Centre (CNGOIC).

It will be very interesting to see if tomorrow's weekly export sales report from the USDA confirms any of this. Last weeks soybean sales were 617,100 MT for old crop and a very healthy 824,200 MT for new crop. China booked 186,300 MT of old crop and 232,500 MT of new crop, there were also new crop sales of 582,000 MT to "unknown" which often translates as China.