China's threat of tariffs on US soybean, as consequence of trade measures between China and the White House, has sparked exports sales of US soybean as buyers are trying to acquire cargoes before tariffs go into effect, sources said Friday.
"Ironically though, the threat of the tariffs has actually stoked up the export market now," a market participant said.
"After months of stagnant export trade for the US, we could see business confirmed over the coming weeks to the Chinese and others due to the trade war fears", another market participant added.
Soybean export cash prices have been rising for Brazil and US as the "US market becomes the supplier to the rest of the world, and South America becomes China's exclusive [point of] origin," a source added.
Large exports sales of US soybeans continued Thursday for the second consecutive trading day, as reported by private exporters, including a "large sale" of 130,632 mt in the current marketing year (September 2017-August 2018) for delivery to Mexico, and 458,000 mt for delivery to unknown destinations, the US Department of Agriculture said Friday.
Of the 458,000 mt, 327,000 mt were for delivery during the current marketing year and 131,000 were for delivery during the next marketing year (September 2018-August 2019).
Private exporters on Tuesday reported selling 129,000 mt of US soybean for delivery to China during the next marketing year, and 325,000 mt unknown destinations, and of these, 130,000 mt is for delivery during the current marketing year and 195,000 mt is for delivery during the next marketing year, USDA data showed.
China has been the main buyer of US soybean so far in the 2017-18 marketing year, buying 28.674 million mt, which represents 55.7% of the total US export sales, according to USDA's data.
