Exclusive: China, before trade negotiations, makes the largest purchases of soy in the United States since June

By Karl Plume

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Chinese private companies have bought at least 10 shipments of US soybeans, the country's biggest purchases since at least June, traders said in the run-up to next month's high-level talks aimed at ending the bilateral trade war lasted more than a year.

Soybean purchases, which represent more than 600,000 tonnes, have been the largest for more than a year for Chinese private importers. They are expected to be shipped from October to December at export terminals in the Pacific Northwest, said two informed traders.

Purchases are another sign that trade tensions between Washington and Beijing could ease after reaching a low point last month when China suspended all purchases of US agricultural products in response to President Donald Trump's threats. to impose more tariffs on Chinese products.

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Beijing this week renewed its promise to buy US agricultural products such as pork and soy, the most valuable agricultural export product of the United States. The major purchase of agricultural products is one of the main US stipulations of a trade agreement, but the two parties remain far apart on other issues. .

Thursday's soybean agreements were the largest among Chinese private importers since Beijing increased import duties by 25 percent on US soybeans in July 2018, in retaliation for US duties imposed on US soybeans. Chinese products. Fees were increased by an additional 5% this month.

Other soy purchases over the past year have been made almost exclusively by Chinese state-owned companies, which are exempt from high import tariffs.

In July, Beijing proposed to exempt five private crushers from import duties on US beans arriving by the end of the year, but very few transactions were concluded before the end of the year. suspension of purchases.

Earlier Thursday, Beijing said Chinese companies were inquiring about the prices of agricultural products. [L3N2631SW]

"I am impressed that the day they allow their business interests to come back and buy in the United States, we have already sold a lot of them," said Jack Scoville, vice president of Price Futures Group in Chicago.

"Obviously, they are trying to show what they can do if we find a fairly normal trading relationship," he said.

Also on Thursday, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that China had purchased 10,878 tonnes of US pork during the week ended September 5, the highest since a single week since May.

US meat traders anticipated a shortage of pork in China due to the outbreak of African swine fever, a deadly pork disease that has reduced the Chinese herd by a third since its arrival in the country more than a year ago. China is therefore willing to make purchases in the United States despite a tariff of 72%.

Soybean exports from the United States to China, the world's largest buyer, have dropped in the course of the bilateral conflict, with more and more supplies pushing prices to near-decade lows and US farmers struggling to generate benefits.

China has largely turned to South America for soybean since the start of the trade war. US soybean sales to China in 2018 fell 74% from the previous year to reach their lowest level in 16 years.

(Report by Karl Plume in Chicago, additional report by Tom Polansek in Chicago, edited by Chris Reese and Sonya Hepinstall)